Q: Someone in my writers group complained that my plot is hard to follow. Can you help? A: You might need to work on the transitions — the glue that makes a seamless narrative.  You might need to add a few words of clarification or entire new passages to bridge the gaps. Your reader could [...]

“Everybody’s looking for the next big thing — a work of great literary fiction from an unknown writer who’s never been published.” That’s according to Jay Schaefer, an editor-at-large at Workman Publishers in New York City and its subsidiary, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Schaefer, a publishing veteran best known for producing the [...]

What if a reader’s neocortex actually lit up because he recognized your cab driver’s distinctive Hoboken snarl? Or her hypothalamus sent off sparks because she could practically taste the creamy hot chocolate with handmade vanilla marshmallows that your heroine sipped at the Bittersweet Café? There’s scientific evidence that books really do turn on our brains. [...]