Essential Guide to Writing a Novel

Almost all successful fiction writers are close observers.  We can teach ourselves to be close observers, and use those observations in our characters and settings.  And here are examples of close observations from the masters, those small details that bring their stories to vivid life.
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Novels that endure not only have bold plots but are also beautifully written.  Here are techniques on how to make our sentences shine.  Also: should we write our first chapter first and our last chapter last (as does John Grisham) or should we write the chapters and scenes out of order (as did Margaret Mitchell)?
Here is a 20-episode master class on fiction writing—a start-to-finish course covering plot, characters, dialogue, scenes, sentence-level craft, and much more.  Each episode is focused and about 30 minutes.  The full class—all 20 episodes—is available now for a one-time price of forty-nine dollars.  If you want structured, concise guidance, click the Buy the Master Class link in the show notes to get started.
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Cliches can offer solid advice.  Pedal to the metal.  Go big or go home.  Leave it all on the field.  We should swing for the fences with a bold plot.  Also: a setting can be more than facts about the landscape.  The masters add compelling moods to their stories with their settings.
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Some of us may describe our characters using only the sense of sight: what the reader sees when imagining the character.  But we can also use sound, smell, taste, and texture to make our characters more memorable.  Here are thoughts on how to do so.  Also, Janet Burroway on the critical difference between a scene and a summary.  And how Francine Prose reads fiction to learn the writing craft.
Here is a 20-episode master class on fiction writing—a start-to-finish course covering plot, characters, dialogue, scenes, sentence-level craft, and much more.  Each episode is focused and about 30 minutes.  The full class—all 20 episodes—is available now for a one-time price of forty-nine dollars.  If you want structured, concise guidance, click the Buy the Master Class link in the show notes to get started.
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I talk about ways we can make our settings--the time and place of our story--irresistible to readers.  They'll want to live there.  Plus: we can use our global search function to almost instantly make our sentences more forceful.  And: novelist Elizabeth George's plotting technique she calls the plot kernel.
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