LAURENCE MACNAUGHTON

Tag: first novel

  • How to Write A Novel a Year

    Think you don’t have time to write? You’re probably right. Between a day job, a family and all of the obligations of modern life, the goal of finishing a novel is clearly impossible. Much less writing a novel every year. And yet, though common sense tells you no, the truth is that you can do…

  • Beat Writer’s Block in 6 Simple Steps

    Q:  I’m about five chapters into writing my first novel and I’ve reached a total impasse.  I flat-out don’t know where to go from here.  Everything started out so well, I had lots of story ideas and the pages were coming fast.  But now I’m stuck, and I don’t know what to do.  Should I…

  • The One Thing You Must Do to Get Published

    As a writing coach, it’s my job to help people get a little perspective on their story problems.  Recently, a client asked me to help him out with his first novel.  He’d gotten halfway through and stalled out.  I put together a laundry list of ways to fix his various story problems — and then…

  • Defrag Your Writer Brain in 3 Easy Steps

    If you’re like me, ideas swirl around you all the time — stories, characters, settings, dialogue, and so on.  It sticks in your brain, so you write it down.  Before long, you have so many scraps of paper around you that a single gust of wind could turn you into a human snow globe. This…