LAURENCE MACNAUGHTON

  • Hey, this is cool. Join me over at Word Cafe for an interview where I reveal everything I know about: • Building a full-time career around writing, as a novelist and a copywriter — and what a copywriter does, exactly.…

  • Let me tell you the secret to getting rid of writer’s block forever. I’ll admit, I’ve certainly had days where I feel like I don’t know what to write, or I worry that everything I write is terrible. Some people…

  • I first met Anita when she worked with my literary agent, Kristin Nelson. Anita is a freelance editor who helps writers bring out the very best in their novels. She was kind enough to share her editing insights, including why…

  • So, this year I did something I’ve never done before. I wrote a sequel. It was weird, because for the first time, I found myself writing a book with pre-established characters, relationships, settings, etc. Dru’s magic universe (or the “Druniverse” as…

  • Tonight at 6:00 PM MST, I’m doing an author chat with Night Owl Reviews. Far as I can tell, it’s a text chat. So, apparently we’re going to party like it’s 1999. ;) Join me, along with romance author Avery…

  • Beyond the Trope is the most nerdly fun podcast you haven’t heard yet. Click here to listen. > By the way, not only is it oddly addictive, I also promised to give away a signed paperback copy of It Happened One Doomsday…

  • Holy cow! I couldn’t be happier with this fabulous review from Canadian book site www.geekygodmother.ca: “The characters are fantastic in what I’m hoping is only the first of a series. Dru doesn’t feel she has the great power of her heroes, but…

  • Attention writers: You’re missing out. If you aren’t already listening to Mur Lafferty’s, “I Should Be Writing: The Podcast for Wannabe Fiction Writers,” you need to drop what you’re doing and go listen. In every episode, Mur talks about the writing process,…

  • Everyone has a unique way of getting inspired. I spark ideas by doing tons of research. The world we live in is so weird, it’s impossible not to get inspired. Before I wrote about the crystal magic in IT HAPPENED…

  • Seems like every reviewer has a different currency: five stars, five moons, five thumbs up (which for some reason makes me think of Sha Na Na). Whatever they are, whenever there are FIVE of them, I sit up and take…

From the blog

  • Want to Get Published? Read This.

    I’ve talked to dozens of best-selling authors about their early years, before they were published. And the similarities between them are striking. On average, they wrote about half a dozen unpublished manuscripts before they sold a novel. (By the way, this is what I call the Myth of the First Novel. Because it’s hardly ever…

  • Compelling Character Arcs in 4 Easy Steps

    I’ll let you in on a secret: readers want your character to change. They know, deep down, that your character is unhappy with the status quo at the beginning of your book. Something is terribly wrong in your character’s life, and things can’t keep going on this way. Something’s got to give. Readers fervently hope…