LAURENCE MACNAUGHTON

  • Listen up, true believers.  Think you can write a novel good enough to get published?  Find out this Sunday! Literary agent and celebrated book genius Sara Megibow (of the incomparable Nelson Literary Agency) will lead a two-hour writing workshop open…

  • Ever wondered what it feels like to hear that hordes of people will buy your new book just because your name is on the cover?  Well, who hasn’t?  With a lot of hard work and perseverance, it can happen —…

  • Last week, I talked about how you can write a novel in any genre, as long as you know exactly what that genre is.  And believe me, you desperately need to define your book’s genre. As promised, here’s a nuts…

  • Just a quick reminder that on Sunday, literary agent extraordinaire Sara Megibow (of the much-esteemed Nelson Literary Agency) is leading a two-hour writing workshop open to any fiction writer.  And don’t think you don’t have what it takes.  If you…

  • You can write a novel in any genre you want, as long as you know what it is.  To me, a “genre” is anything that comes with a certain set of expectations.  If you tell me your story is a…

  • If you’re a Colorado writer, you owe it to yourself to check out Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers, a source of news, inspiration, critique groups, conferences and the occasional bestselling author.  Editor extraordinaire Carly Willis puts together an excellent newsletter every…

  • This is a great charity event!  I’ve been wanting to donate to this for years.  (True story: back when I worked at a book distributor, there were two pallets of Nora Roberts and Iris Johansen paperbacks I was almost able…

  • Writers generally fall into three camps: hobbyists, aspiring professionals and working pros. The difference is not so much about your writing skills or experience as it is about your goals. A hobby writer just wants to have fun with writing.…

  • It isn’t often that you get a chance to boost your own writing career and do a good deed at the same time.  So when that opportunity comes along, you say, “Yes!” If you live in Colorado, here’s a great…

  • These days, most of our precious writing usually ends up online, where it is relentlessly scrutinized by robots.  Not the sparky “Danger, Will Robinson, danger!” kind of robots, but invisible little computer gremlins that furrow through the internet, looking for…

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…