One From the Heart
Some of you may be aware that I’m now also blogging on The Kill Zone, which for me is like being asked to do a regular TED talk (a goal that remains in my sites, by the way). Nine published thriller/mystery authors post daily (rotating the hot seat) on cross-genre writing topics. Today is my […]
Pitch Perfect
A new coaching/evaluation service from Storyfix. I’ve been a little scarce here lately, my apologies. I’ve just returned from a wonderful writing conference in Denver, with the Historical Novel Society. I taught two sessions amounting to an all day experience, and had a blast with 150 new friends and fellow writers who were as […]
Useless Humor: Fun With Words…
… called paraprosdokians. Apparently Winston Churchill loved paraprosdokians (often mispelled as araprosdokians). These are figures of speech in which the latter part of a sentence or phrase is surprising or unexpected, and frequently humorous. Here are 29 to get you giggling. Where there’s a will, I want to be in it. The last thing I want […]
James Scott Bell on Writing Smarter
James Scott Bell needs no introduction. But I won’t let that stop me. Jim is the author of the modern classic within the craft niche, Plot and Structure, a perennial bestseller that has influenced tens of thousands of writers. He has several other craft titles out, as well, including two recent books that he […]
Two Video Tutorials on Nailing Your Concept
Some of us are visual learners. This is for you. Some of us take more than a few passes at it before it sinks in. This is for you, as well. I’m talking about CONCEPT within a story. What it is. What is isn’t. How and why concept and premise are different things entirely, and […]
What You May be Missing about “50 Shades of Grey”
It’s all about the “story physics.” In this case, 100 million examples of how and why story physics are the most important consideration in the crafting of a story. Maybe it is. But that’s not the right question… at least here. Did you see the film Unbroken, which documents some of the most heinous human […]
The Quintessential Paradoxical Pantser Conundrum
Pantser: someone who creates using the seat of their pants, rather than developing a plan beforehand. Sometimes the way we choose to do things is, pure and simple, fun. Sometimes fun trumps everything else. For some, we choose easy rather than what doesn’t come naturally or is perceived as complex. So choose wisely… not […]
The New World of Publishing
What’s changed… what hasn’t. Allow me to narrow the lens of that title to focus on what writers of fiction — not David Baldacci or Dan Brown, not Nora Roberts or Jodi Picoult… rather, writers like you and me and everything above, below and in between, published and self–published, bestselling authors and widely published […]
Storyfix 2.0 – Welcome to the Relaunch!
A killer new design. Enhanced Story Coaching programs. Bigger, better, career-making content. Welcome to my little Open House. Sorry about the cookies and punch, couldn’t find a way to get them into WordPress without consulting a magician, I am already looking for wordpress hosting packages. Read on for a few juicy discounts on story coaching […]
A Follow Up to My Previous Post
In my last post I recommended the film “The Gambler” because of a provocative scene (a monologue, actually) on the challenge and frustrations of the fiction-writing life. Several folks have told me they didn’t feel the same. That it was actually discouraging instead of motivating. Fair enough. I get that. I apologize for not better […]