Why do I teach GCT?

That’s what one of my students asked me a couple week ago. “It can’t make you much money,” she said. “Not for the amount of time and work you put in over the three months.” She’s right; it doesn’t. I spend three hours a week teaching each class–in the fall, that’s going to go up [...]

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I regularly find LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc. posts from freelance writers lamenting low fees, slow pays, and big corporations getting away with employee restraints but not providing employee benefits. Don’t you deserve better? As a book ghostwriter, I always get paid, I set my own fees, and I can work as many big-ticket projects at [...]

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I did not accomplish all those wonderful things I claimed I would do in 2009. I did not reduce my work day from anytime/any day to nine to five, Monday through Friday. I did not get my house impeccably clean and keep it that way. I did not replace my late mother-in-law’s tank for a [...]

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In case you hadn’t noticed, I’ve put out a free eBook: PLOT YOUR NOVEL IN 15 MINUTES OR LESS. It’s not a gimmick or a come-on–it’s a real technique that’s been used in Hollywood for decades. It’s one of the few techniques in SECRETS OF A GHOSTWRITER that I did not personally create. (To download [...]

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…and while we’re on the subject of fantastic writer opportunities, don’t forget to sign up for this year’s National Novel Writing Month at http://nanowrimo.org. Remember, you only have to get 1,700 words done every day to make that 50,000 word goal, so put together your outline and character studies Now and get ready to write [...]

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I just finished giving my Before Copy Editing workshop for the 2nd year at the MUSE Online Writers Conference, a full week of workshops, chats with professionals, agents, and editors, and–new this year–the opportunity to pitch to publishers. As with any conference, there was no way to absorb all the fantastic information being offered FOR [...]

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I’ve run into so many people of late with such cockamamie ideas about writing and the book business that I simply had to pull out an old piece and update it. So without further ado, here’s the 3 Easiest Ways to Trash Your Literary Aspirations: 1. Write an easily rejected manuscript. Don’t clutter up your [...]

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Eerily, I’ve had the same conversation with a series of aspiring novelists in the last month or some, to wit: novels are not movies. They’re about people, not events. Even when they’re wrapped around a real event, they’re about the people experiencing the event, not the event itself. Nonfiction is about events. Furthermore (the discussion [...]

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For reasons beyond my comprehension, I always expect every January to feel “different” from the days preceding it. What actually happens is that every January I get lost in the year; i.e., I have trouble remembering what day or month I’m on. It sometimes takes me until March or April to get “grounded” in the [...]

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I was speaking with an associate the other day who was feeling overwhelmed, as we all do from time to time, by the sheer number of things she had yet to finish that week–and the depth of work involved in each one of those things. So I gave her permission to not be current. I [...]

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