Write a thriller: Do you plot or not?
Should crime fiction writers figure out the details of their plot before they write? Harlan Coben doesn’t. John Grisham does. Robert Ludlum did, …
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Why you should break Elmore Leonard’s writing rules…sometimes
Elmore Leonard, who died yesterday at 87, has 10 rules for writing. They don’t cover most of the important points of writing. They could really be …
10 Historical Thrillers You Have to Read
The unmissable best historical thrillers, including at least a few you haven’t heard of Naturally I’m assuming you’ve already read …
Using real locations in historical fiction
Historical novelists recreate the emotions and events of distant times. For some novelists, this is a matter of supreme imagination and invention, …
Writers enter character like Black Swan and Springsteen
Writers enter character for more than just dialogue A writer needs to enter the characters in his/her novel. I’ve talked about this with other …
How to create empathy in writing
Empathy is vital for a writer Malcolm Muggeridge (an old English literateur) once said that George Orwell “was no good as a novelist, because he …
Guardian: Top 10 Arab-world novels
The Guardian asked me to contribute to their regular feature in which authors pick their top 10 novels on a particular subject. Read my top 10 novels …