I have a thing for magical worlds. Every time Lucy opens that wardrobe, brushes past the musty fur coats, and walks into Narnia, I get a thrill. I like my escapes big. In psychology, I wrote about transcendent experiences. I...

Every novelist builds a world, but if you’re writing fantasy or science fiction, worldbuilding is a bigger job—one I’m often tempted to skimp on. It’s great fun to think about magic in a new world—not so fun to figure out go...

Meet Captain Happen—troublemaker, narrative enabler, change agent. The novelist, essayist, and poet, Charles Baxter talks about Captain Happen as one of several ways to increase urgency and momentum in fiction. Male or femal...

Conjure, enchant, shape-shift, or summon—endless possibilities exist in the world of magic. Cast a spell, fight a dragon, wave a magic wand, and don’t forget the ruby slipper, the mermaid, or the unicorn. And then there’s ti...

I was floundering in the Murky Middle of my novel. You know that place—the one that happens after you’ve sent your hero off to find her heart’s desire, but before she actually gets it. Right, that place—the big, awful middle...

I didn’t plan to write for kids. My first middle grade novel, Little Beast, began as a book for adults. After a few years it turned into a YA novel, and a few years later, it dropped to middle grade. Since thinking about pub...

Writing every day? Forget it. That’s what best-selling male writers do while their wives do everything else. Or so I thought until the 100 Day Challenge.

The Challenge started at the end of GrubStreet’s spring Muse and the Ma...

It’s the first afternoon of the Novel Incubator Alumni Writing Retreat in Jackson, NH. From my room up in the eaves, I read over the last chapter of the latest draft of my novel, attach the whole thing to an email and push S...

I have a muse named Charley.  I call him a muse but honestly I’m not sure what he is.  More than likely he’s a product of my imagination, except that sometimes he says stuff I would never say or even think.  Like he tells me...