Finding that Perfect Comp

I don’t have nightmares about showing up for a college exam having not studied. My palms don’t sweat at the idea of getting onto an airplane. Spiders don’t send me into a conniption fit. But ask me what books would…

Leitmotifs For My Characters

Feeling a bit of cabin fever? Try coming up with a theme song for each major character in your novel. Fellow incubee Anjali Mathur gave me this idea last spring when she said she put on certain songs when she…

I Am Not a Success Story

There’s not a lot of advice I can give to other writers about how to be successful. The problem is that there are too many individual interpretations of “success.” To me, success looks like this: I can pay my electric…