Charlotte Bronte's novel Jane Eyre is a classic of western literature, a novel that endures and still hugely entertains because . . . it's so great.   (How that for being profound?)  Charlotte Bronte offers an important lesson for today's writers, and I'll talk about her lesson in this episode.  Plus, the trouble with prologues.

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Why are some novels so good?  One of the reasons is that the author is a master at setting descriptions.  How did Charlotte Bronte and Edna Ferber make their settings magical?  We'll talk about their techniques here.  Also, strong verbs versus weak verbs: how and why to choose the stronger action word.

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My first encounter with Mad Magazine, a life changer.  And dialogue techniques that can help make our characters' conversations fascinating.

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Good stories are filled with surprises for the reader.  There are right and wrong ways for us writers to deliver surprises, and I'll talk about them here.  Also, the importance of a tie-up-later list.  

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What do George Orwell, Sara Gruen, Jean Shepherd, and John Steinbeck have in common?  Many things but foremost among them is their expert use of details that take readers away, that lift us readers out of our chairs and transport us to their places and times.  Here are thoughts on their use of details.  Also, we should avoid cliches like the plague. 

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Here is a magical way to end a scene and to begin another without worrying about travel and time between scenes.  Also: avoiding dangling modifiers.  And how Bernard Malamud worked, and Helen Dunmore's rules of writing.

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What should we do if we must--absolutely must--have an element in our story that might not be fully entertaining and engaging?   1) Make sure it's important and 2) make it short.  Here are thoughts about this critical technique.  Also, details in our descriptions are important, but which should we use and which should we leave out?

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We writers can use lovely phrases and perceptive observations when describing our character in our story, and yet the reader may still quickly forget the character.  Here's how to make a character stick in the reader's mind.  Also, are you a born writer?  Maybe so.  Here's why you might be.

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We can show (as opposed to tell) as we create a setting for our story.  Showing will make our settings vivid, and will allow the setting description to do double duty: describe the place and suggest a mood.  Also, reasons to avoid meetings in our story.

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We'll build our character as we write along, adding descriptions and actions and dialogue.  But there is a way with only one or two sentences to reveal something powerful and memorable about the character--in just a few words--and I'll talk about the technique here.  Also, Joyce Carol Oates's rules of writing.  And punctuating dialogue, with important techniques about our character's spoken sentences so that our dialogue is a clear window to the story.

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