Kate Moretti We’ve all seen the examples: Wizard School, Dinosaur Park, Titanic. Don’t shudder everyone, high concept is back. Whether it was ever “out” is somewhat debatable. We see it on agent’s manuscript wish lists, in rejection letters, in publisher submission pages. Everyone seems to want a compelling pitch, to heck with characters and world-building […]

Piper Bayard of Bayard & Holmes No one wants to read about a fictional nice day. Great fiction is about one thing, and one thing only . . . problems. And lots of them. Problems keep the pages turning, and the heart of a problem is conflict. Without conflict, there is no plot, which is […]

James Preston In Back to the Future, Marty McFly's mother's kid brother asks "What's a re-run?" Marty replies, "You'll find out." Pop quiz: What was on TV when Marty said that? I am old enough to remember that if I missed an episode of "77 Sunset Strip" (BTW if in your mind you heard the […]

I admit, I’m a sucker for articles about the secret to success. Because, come on, some genius out there knows how to break the system, how to beat the odds, how to make it in a world that just wants to beat the creative stuffing out of you. But here’s the thing, there is no […]

Sonja Yoerg The act of writing is an exercise in managing symbols. Every word, after all, is attached to a universe of meaning; the bit we formally agree upon is the definition. Everything else a word signifies exists in a web of personal memory, experience and emotion. If I write “moon,” your brain lights up […]