Nathan Bransford - The Forums

Moses, I love your list!

I would add Donald Maass' new book, Fire in Fiction. For a more experienced writer, I think it's even better than the Breakout Novel book.

There are two problems with the "wake up in the morning" start, as far as I can see. 1) Waking in the morning tends to be really passive and boring, and 2) It's been done so often, it's a cliché. Your opening where the guy wakes up after a beating might overcome the first objection, at lea...

I read once in an agent's blog (wish I could remember which one!) that if you think you might be ready, send a query to ten agents, agents you've researched who definitely rep the kind of story you're writing. If two of the ten ask for partials, you're probably ready and just need to find the right ...

I think it depends partly on how deep your Third Person POV is. Take, for instance, an objective Third Person POV where the POV is almost a video cam mounted on the POV character's head. I think Hemingway used this sort of objective Third. Internal monologue in this sort of POV might be confusing if...

I couldn't find a local group, so I started one. I invited the one other person I knew who was writing fiction and put up a notice at the library. We've now been meeting for about four years, and it's very strong. A number of people have come and gone, but we have a solid core. I live in a rural are...