If they aren't real enough to surprise me, then they aren't real enough to go on the page.

I outline fairly extensively because I'm usually dealing with real events. I don't need to give myself as much information as I used to, but I still like to have two pages of outline for every projected 100 pages of manuscript.

When you're a mid-list writer, it pays to write fast.

Very few editors worry about heresy - their goals are much too commercial, thank goodness.

Storylines are how characters create the plots involved in their stories.

Providing a writer isn't put off by conventions - and some are - attending them can be a nice break from the necessary isolation of writing.