My Pseudo-2Q Newsletter Update With a Few Gratuitous But Nonetheless Valuable Tips

“Story Physics” has shipped. If you’ve pre-ordered my new writing book, “Story Physics,” chances are you have it in hand.  The official pub date is still three weeks out, so the Kindle version is just around the corner. First reader feedback: “I read the Introduction and experienced a shift in attitude toward writing, a clarification […]

The Continuing Chaos of Concept

The challenge of this whole idea vs. concept vs. premise conversation is that anything can be regarded as a “concept.” “I want to write a love story”… is a concept.  It least if you don’t care about the differentiation between those three nuances. Which you should, by the way, if you want to take full […]

“The Thieves of Joy” – A Guest Post By Art Holcomb

“Comparison is the Thief of Joy” – Theodore Roosevelt Good vs. Evil. Right vs. Wrong. Love vs. Hate. Luke vs. Vader. Werewolves vs. Vampires. Obama vs. Romney. The Past vs. the Present. The actual plot of “Lost” vs. whatever the Hell was going on there. What it all comes down to is Opposition – the […]

Left-Brain, Right-Brain, or No-Brain At All

We’ve heard the phrase: it’s a no brainer.  Writing a story that works is the absolute opposite of that. So let us attempt to put a fence around, if not quite sequential-ize or formula-ize, the nature of the successful storytelling process. It all breaks down into three unique but dependent phases of story development.  The […]

Bold Storytelling Statements That Are Almost Always True

A great concept is the raw grist for a great premise.  Not necessarily the premise itself. Idea… concept… premise… for writers these are separate and essential things.  Unless they aren’t separate (an idea can arrive in the form of a concept and/or premise).  Which rarely happens. The order in which they arrive is not set […]