Write Better. Right Now.

Articles by Melissa James

blog post men-behaving-badly-when-heroes-become-unheroic
Blog post Story Flow

Story Flow

Just recently, a writing friend, who, despite being an excellent writer, is having problems with her story’s jerky feeling, asked me: “What do you mean by flow (big wail here!!!)?? I know how to recognize it in other people’s writing, but I’m not sure what the specifics are. Is it a technique you can learn, […]

Read More →

[ssba]
Blog-post-Twisting-an-Old-Plot-into-a-Fresh-Idea

Twisting an Old Plot into a Fresh Idea

Sherry-Anne Jacobs, author of 18 published novels so far, wrote something in her handbook called Plotting and Editing that made a great deal of sense to me. On page 19, under the heading, What Makes Your Book special?, she writes: “All the time you’re writing, whichever method you use, you should bear in mind that […]

Read More →

[ssba]
emotional-depth-3-finding-physical-stimulants
emotional-depth-4-deep-point-of-view
blog post emotional-depth-5-emotional-sex

Emotional Depth 5: Emotional Sex

Yep, I said it: SEX. The hot-and-sweaty, no-holds-barred, tangled-sheets or on-the-floor, down-and-dirty three-letter word that terrifies some of us so bad we write, “put love scene here” on a page and move on in seconds! Yet sex scenes can be so vital to the story (unless you’re doing Tender Romance or Inspirational, of course), if […]

Read More →

[ssba]
emotional-depth-6-fattening-your-scenes
emotional-depth-2-bring-your-characters-to-life 2
emotional-depth-1

Emotional Depth 1

How many rejection letters have we all had, stating that our writing lacks those two awful words, “emotional punch”? I know I’ve had more than a few in the past. But it would leave me puzzled for a long, long time. What is emotional punch? People say to write the book of your heart and […]

Read More →

[ssba]
Blog-post-risking-emotional-suicide

Risking Emotional Suicide

It’s happened again. You’ve had another rejection, one of those awful, generic ‘editorial department’ ones we all dread: ‘Your story is well-written and plotted, but lacks the emotional depth and excitement we’re looking for.’ You probably screw up the letter and throw it somewhere. You imagine vile things happening to that rotten editor who has […]

Read More →

[ssba]