LAURENCE MACNAUGHTON

  • Are you going to the RMFW Colorado Gold 2018 conference? Don’t miss this chance to pick my brain about all things related to urban fantasy, writing action scenes, and creating monsters. Here’s where you can find me: Birds of a…

  • “Crystal sorceress Dru and her eclectic group of friends, including a literal speed demon trapped in a classic muscle car, once again fend off the end of the world in MacNaughton’s third eclectic fantasy novel . . . Sharp action…

  • Want to win a cool bookmark? (Plus a brand new signed book to go with it?) I’ve got three of ’em, right in my big greedy hand here. If this were a work of art, they’d be called limited edition. But…

  • “How can I find the time to write?” said every aspiring author ever. But time is only half of the equation. The other half is speed. The faster you write, the faster you will finish your story or novel and…

  • The rumors are true. Dru Jasper #3: No Sleep till Doomsday is coming out soon! Here’s the scoop: When a wicked enchantress steals a cursed doomsday amulet, crystal sorceress Dru Jasper has only 24 hours to get it back before…

  • Recently, I received an email from a teen writer who had decided to write a novel, but she was struggling to find the time. Between school, homework, music lessons, and other commitments, she didn’t know when she would actually be…

  • One of the little-known perks of being a writer is that I get to pretend that I know all kinds of cool stuff. Every character I create is an expert in something. They can hack into top-secret computer networks, field…

  • How do you, as a writer, build a new world that fascinates your readers, draws them in, and makes them want to come back for more? If you write fantasy, science fiction, or horror, you need to do your world…

  • I’m kind of ashamed to admit this. But I’ve waited long enough. It’s time I came out and said it. Ready? Okay. Here we go. Deep breath. Ahem. So, the thing is, I’ve never . . .

  • Readers may be intrigued by a good plot. But if your characters are interesting, readers will remember them long after they close the book. It can be tough to create fully fleshed-out, three-dimensional characters. I explain how to do it…

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 On average, they wrote about half a dozen unpublished manuscripts before they sold a novel.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…