I don’t like to include physical descriptions of my characters in my writing. I’m often accused of this fault.

On a Thursday night, I listened to a poet read his newest stuff.

Readers need mental “take a breath” moments in a fight scene. Like swimmers holding their breath, eventually they need to come up for air.

Self-awareness is an end result. A new self-revelation is a great denouement. But until the character has struggled to learn, hold off.

Take the time to learn the skills, to learn the craft, to develop your talent. People will be reading books forever. You have time. Take it.

Our brains use inductive logic; thus, pairing two specific actions together gives the readers all they need to understand.

In order to SHOW your character’s emotions, you need to know WHY the character feels that way. This is not as simple as it sounds.

Narrative will not deliver a feeling alone. Instead, zoom in. Give the image of an action that creates the feeling. Here's how.

As you improve, focus more on the nuances of what you know and not the novelty of something new. I call this learning to “write small.”

To write dialogue, invert the reading process. Don’t use dialogue to deliver information. Use it to imply emotions and psychology.

Invert your craft. Start with the deeper psychology, and then write what they'd say because of the feeling, not to explain that feeling.