Essential Guide to Writing a Novel James Thayer

Good advice about designing your own book cover; don't.   If you self-publish your novel don't ruin it with a do-it-yourself book cover.   Here are thoughts on why you should hire a pro designer.  Also: why have we lost some enthusiasm for writing our novel, and how can we get it back?   And some of the loveliest sentences in literature.
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Some of us have a hard time beginning the writing of our novels or short stories.  Here are the reasons why and things we might do to overcome them.   Also, the best first sentences in literature.  And now novelist John Cheever worked.
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We can avoid inert paragraphs by having our descriptions do more than one thing at once.   Descriptions of our characters, settings, and action and our dialogue can do double duty--two things at the same time--which will engage the reader and enliven our story.   Here's how .
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Should we categorize our novel as literary or commercial?  What are the benefits and drawbacks of doing so?  Also, we can improve our dialogue writing by reading great crime fiction.  And: the importance of avoiding filters.
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Jack Bickham says that scenes should be followed by sequels.  Here are thoughts on how to write a sequel.  Also, the middle of a novel--sometimes called the Great Swampy Middle--can be hard to plot.  We'll discuss techniques on bulking up the middle of our story.
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What is the best way to plot our novel, plotting from scene to scene?  Here is a discussion of the critical technique of avoiding a scene's set up and wind down.  Also, I took part in a writing experiment and spectacularly failed, and here is an account of it.  I still wince when I recall it.  Also, a strong writing technique is avoiding "was" and "were."  We'll discuss why and how to do so.
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