Muze Taps

From Church to Bookstore

In the beginning was the Word. That’s what I was taught anyway. I don’t know about God, and certainly not

Benefits of Working with a Qualified Editor

Writing can be an enigmatic art form, familiar yet mysterious. What may appear transparent at first glance proves surprisingly opaque

Finding a Voice, Part Two

Our previous Muze Tap noted that letting go of self-consciousness and judgment brings us closer to writing the way we

Finding a Voice, Part One

We often praise writing for its voice, but run into difficulty trying to define what voice actually means. We know that voice

Writing From Life

Memoir has been the next new thing for at least twenty years, gobbling up the pie-share of sales that used

Six Quick Tips on Dialogue

Dialogue is far from tape-recorded reality, even though it sounds like tape-recorded reality. Dialogue has to maintain its focus on

Getting Started with Dialogue

Honoring the hotspots in a story means allowing them to explode into scenes. Dialogue is another word for the fireworks

Making a Scene – When and How

The ability to summarize comes in handy when a writer needs to move quickly over an unimportant expanse of time.

Time Management

Stories are about time, about the interplay of past, present, and future. Characters come with past histories and future hopes.

Building Character

A story is about people before it’s about anything else. How do we bring to life on the page the

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