When I think of the historical fiction novels I've read, three jump to the top as my all-time faves: All the Light We Cannot See  by Anthony Doerr Dancer by Colum McCann The Women by Kristin Hannah Why are they so great? All the Light We Cannot See is a gorgeously written story of two teens during WWII, and can be categorized as a cross-over YA and adult novel. The protagonists are a blind girl in France and a young Nazi radio operator in Germany. The prose is lyrical, and

They're precious. Each one means something. And yet, we all know how it feels when the book (or article, or textbook chapter) drags on. As a rule, readers value concision. They want to read the story in just as many words as it takes to tell, not five hundred extra describing the shape of an irrelevant tree. (Now there are many descriptions of trees that add to atmosphere, mood, or even plot, but if it doesn't check one of these boxes, it doesn't make the cut!) Over the lengt

In fall of 2024, I attended a session at a writer's conference that changed my life as a writer. It was called "The Year of 100 Rejections," and in it the author, a prolific romance writer, said that she made it her goal to get 100 rejections in a year. She said that inevitably her writing would get accepted somewhere, and that it was almost counter-intuitively annoying because it meant she had to work harder to reach the 100 rejections. She shared a bingo card with squares l

Originally published in the Central Colorado Writers Monthly Edition You’ve done it. Through many long hours and concentrated effort, you’ve written an entire novel. After you celebrate that accomplishment, you realize this is only the beginning. Now comes Draft Two, but where to start?   The first revision of your novel needs to address the big-picture issues, what editors call “developmental” issues. These are the elements of your story that make it whole. For example, a de