Writers beware: descriptive prose often fascinates the writer but bores the reader. I’ve done research on a specific place and written it so well that my readers can look it up on Wikipedia and know more from my prose. My wife (first draft editor) redlines those passages, boring, or, when she’s in a good mood, […]

Dialogue separates great works from lesser stories without you, as a reader, realizing it. Dialogue has such a profound effect that it has changed dramatically over the years. Take for example this good but dated exchange between two wives leaving a party from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s timeless classic, The Great Gatsby: “Whenever he sees I’m […]