“The Hopes and Dreams of Truly Awful People” — a guest post by Art Holcomb
Love Art Holcomb. His resume is… massively credible. Use the search function (to the right on this site) to find more Storyfix contributions from this guy. Worth every minute. In fact — to show you who this guy is — about ten minutes before posting this I get a lengthy (and genius) email from Art […]
Novelists: The Data on “Normal”… And the Path to Extraordinary
They say that about two out of every 100 novels submitted to publishers actually get a contract. Of those, a majority were submitted through established literary agencies, which changes the odds dramatically. That’s good news and the bad news. Because it means you need to get an agent – which you absolutely can – before […]
Structure vs. Strategy — Don’t Get Mislead By Celebrity Author-Speak
I try to read all the author interviews I can get my hands on. Not sure why, because sometimes I find myself shaking my head in disbelief, occasionally flinging the magazine or my mouse against the nearest wall. Because authors, even very famous ones, say some of the strangest things. Sometimes what they say is […]
A Good Day to be a Writer… Part Deux
(The post below went out yesterday. The photo above… didn’t. A tech glitch… WordPress doesn’t like pasted-in photos, which was my only option since my shiney new iPad won’t allow me to download the required WordPress app… because Apple tells me that my password isn’t valid, even after I’ve changed it FOUR times on THEIR […]
Confessions of a Pantser, or What I Failed To Learn in Grad School
A guest post by Eric Neyer When I was in my late 20s I spent two years working toward an MFA in Creative Writing degree at a small university in the western U.S. From the standpoint of expanding my creative perspective and developing relationships with fellow writers, those were the most productive and incredibly satisfying […]
“The Words” — A Must-See Movie For Writers and Those Who Love Them
It’s good to be a writer. Because somebody may one day write about you. There are two excellent films now out that have writer-protagonists. The first is Ruby Sparks, a “little” film (Hollywood speak for a movies that doesn’t star someone named Cruise, Streep, Pitt, Jolie, Tatum or Hemsworth) about a writer whose imagination gets […]
In Defense of Story Architecture
I have no idea what the etiquette is on referring readers to a third party review of one’s own book. On one hand it seems, well, fine… though some would perceive it as a bit self-serving. But that’s what I’m doing. The link appears below (and HERE), straight to the reviewers page on Amazon.com. At this writing […]
The Fix Is In: The Square-One Story Killer
Not long ago I wrote about a toxic, epidemic story problem that is killing the chances of passionate, well-intended writers who aren’t aware that they’re playing with fire. I’m going to do it again here, from a different perspective… because it’s that pervasive and consistently deadly. Here’s the SOLUTION – the cure, the fix, the […]
The Seductive But Deadly Sin That Wants to Kill Your Story
See if you can diagnose the writer’s problem in the following fictional – but all too common – exchange. I have it all too frequently as I coach writers on their stories. At conferences. In emails. As part of my new story coaching program. It goes like this: “What’s your story about?” I ask. “It’s […]
The Killer One-Two Punch that Launches Dramatic Tension in Your Story
You get that you need to setup your story. You get that you need to present your hero with a problem and/or a goal. Something to DO. With something standing in the hero’s way, an entity with their own opposing needs and goals. And, with something at stake for both your hero and that opposing […]