3 Questions You Must Ask Your Characters — A Guest Post by C. S. Lakin

April 8, 2012

Do you talk to your characters? Should you? If you’re going to write a truly believable novel, then you need to know your characters to the core of their souls. And the best way to get to their core is to ask them three simple questions. Leon Surmelian in his book (written forty years ago) [...]

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Addendum to Newsletter

April 6, 2012

The April edition of my newsletter, “Writers on the Brink,” went out yesterday.  It had a special free offer in it… you know the one. Turns out E-Junkie only allows 100 “free” downloads per day.  That was quickly exceeded.  Another 100 become available each day… so hang in there, keep trying. Hey, it’s news to [...]

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What I Just Learned from a Room Full of Romance Writers

April 3, 2012

    Always wanted to write a headline like that. Not everybody appreciates Romance novels.  Not everybody reads Romance novels.  That said, more people DO read Romance novels than any other single genre out there.  A genre that continues to grow.  A genre with more passionate readers and writers than any other. Which means, we [...]

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Six Core Storytelling Competencies: Good… Better… Best.

March 27, 2012

Ask anyone who writes fiction how many issues an author needs to think about, how much stuff there is to know and execute, and you may get an answer that amounts to dozens, even hundreds of things. That’s pretty accurate, actually. Few who have tried it are tempted to over-simplify. You know my theory, my [...]

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Playing with The Neighbor Kid’s Toys

March 23, 2012

A Guest Post by Art Holcomb This is about the craft of writing stories in another person’s universe . For ten years – between 1994 and 2004 – in addition to my work in comics and screenwriting, I was among a number of writers asked to pitch story ideas to Paramount Studios in Hollywood for [...]

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The Learning Curve That Keeps On Curving

March 19, 2012

In all my years as a writer, writing teacher and blogger, I’ve never run into anybody who claims to know everything there is to know about storytelling. That’s because the more you know, the more you realize how complex and deep it all can be.  Stories are like people, no two are completely alike, and [...]

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The Secret Weapon of Storytelling… Right Under Your Nose

March 16, 2012

It’s good to find an edge.  Something extracted from the vast wealth of storytelling tips, techniques, principles and strategies already on your radar.  Something that is rarely talked about.  Yet when you know what it is, you see it everywhere.  Once recognized and understood, you begin to see how it elevates a story into print, [...]

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How to Position Your Book To Go Viral

March 13, 2012

It is the Holy Grail of instant success as an author.  The elusive grand slam home run of literary home runs.  It is better – beyond – getting published, or even making a bestseller list.  It is the dream.  Bigger than your highest vision of The Dream. It is called “going viral.”  For the Luddites [...]

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David Gerrold and the Cabin by the Lake: A Guest Post by Art Holcomb

March 6, 2012

 “The novel is an event in consciousness. Our aim isn’t to copy actuality, but to modify and recreate our sense of it. The novelist is inviting the reader to watch a performance in his own brain.”                                                                                              - George Buchanan It was the late 1980’s and my writing had stalled.  I’d finished college and I [...]

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Your Story: It’s All in the Mix

February 29, 2012

You may be aware of my penchant for analogies.  A tool that paints a clear picture of the complexities and choices and skillsets involved in writing a great story.  I did a workshop this weekend and managed to cram about eight of them into a single 50-minute lecture. Only one person fled the room. I [...]

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