Improbable Press Blog — Stephen Johnson

By Stephen Johnson Manuscript Wrestling 101 should be mandatory at workshops for all new writers. I don’t think it was part of my vocational writing degree many years ago. If it was, I must have slept through that lecture. It would have been handy to understand the elements of MW101 before tackling my first crime novel Tugga’s Mob. Manuscripts are slippery customers. Their life force is born from the first words, with every page they become stronger and bolder. As a novice the manuscript often had me on the mat. The storyteller would be in a chokehold but refusing to...