The Chopping Blog

By emotionally moving the reader, we compel them to want more—the difficult and elusive goal for any writer—just to get the reader to keep turning the damn page.

I like to help authors get their work ready for submission, but anything that is sent to an agent should be far beyond the first draft stage.

The number one warning sign for me is sloppy prose, whether in a query letter or in the sample chapters.

The short story is a race car, it’s a snapshot, it’s a bird.

Personalisation is a good sign the author is taking themselves seriously, and asking me to as well.

I’m always looking to be drawn into a story by voice.

Often there’s a jolt of excitement I get upon reading something great, and it’s hard to say why and when that comes.

Narrative coaching can take many forms, and what exactly it involves depends on the author's needs and goals.

Ask yourself: what’s the worst thing that could happen to my protagonist in this situation, short of complete failure or death?

The moment you supply resolution, you stop the plot from moving forward.

2020 has been a huge year of change for publishing, much of it for good even in these scary times.

I am hopeful that we may witness the dawn of a new era of independent presses and the continuation of independent bookstores.