Alan Rinzler

Consulting Editor

The blog for writers

The Book Deal

Too much vertical space in your manuscript?

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In filmmaking, vertical space is shorthand for script pages with lots of white and not a lot of words. For scriptwriters it's the rule. A script has dialogue, brief notes for action on the screen and not much else. It makes for quick reading and ensures a kind of textual scarcity that directors … [Read more...]

How to grab, delight or shock your readers right from the start

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"Every time mama came down on that shabby floor, the bullet lodged in my stomach felt like a hot poker." Claude Brown and I hunted through his manuscript for two days to find that moment and move it to the opening of his classic Harlem memoir Manchild in the Promised Land. We wanted to detail … [Read more...]

Happy Birthday Tom Robbins! Time to revisit your advice to writers

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I’ve never known a great author to be more generous with useful advice about the craft of writing than Tom Robbins. If you’ve yet to discover this fabulous author, Robbins has written many bestselling novels including Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, Jitterbug Perfume, Skinny Legs and All and … [Read more...]

Ask the Editor: Memoir or novel for my true story?

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Q. I have an amazing true story to tell, but publishing it may step on some toes. Should I write it as a memoir, and tell it exactly like it was? Or should I write it discreetly as a novel, so I can disguise the lurid details and stay out of trouble? If I don't write this story, the truth will … [Read more...]

Having trouble writing? Try this famous author’s technique

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"Sometimes in a nervous frenzy I just fling words as if I were flinging mud at a wall," says Pulitzer Prize winner John McPhee. "Blurt out, heave out, babble out something – anything – as a first draft," he says in an article called Draft No. 4 now in The New Yorker magazine where he's been … [Read more...]

Writing a memoir: Intersecting memory and story

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Writing a memoir is one of the most stimulating but difficult literary challenges an author can undertake. Nevertheless, it’s a hugely popular genre. Five of the top ten hardcover nonfiction books on the NY Times bestseller list this week are memoirs. Aspiring memoir writers can find help in … [Read more...]

From spark to story: How books get started

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Where do stories come from? Are writers inspired from deep within the unconscious psyche by forces beyond their control? Or are they compelled by external cues that resonate without invitation – unexpected and accidental? As an editor, I’ve seen the muse arrive in surprising and mysterious … [Read more...]

Walking in your character’s shoes: Writing with authenticity

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Bestselling crime novelist Patricia Cornwell inhabits and writes from inside the mind of her lead sleuth, Dr.Kay Scarpetta, the medical examiner in a blockbuster series of 20 forensic thrillers and counting. To get the details exactly right, Cornwell has hung out in a coroner’s morgue to study … [Read more...]

Ask the Editor: Can I become a better writer?

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Q: Every rejection letter I get says there’s something wrong with my writing. Can I really get better at this? A: Yes, you can! Having edited hundreds of writers, I know for a fact that even the most seasoned, successful writers read, study, revise and rewrite, use a professional developmental … [Read more...]

Ask the editor: An agent said my novel needs emotional glue. Help!

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Q. An agent said my novel is missing emotional glue. Like it doesn’t stick together. What is emotional glue and how do I get it into my story? A. Emotional glue reveals a character’s internal reactions, ruminations, and anticipated responses to the dialogue and action of the story. It's the … [Read more...]