3 Killer Tips and a Warning
Always liked the way Four Weddings and Funeral sounded as a title. Liked Sex, Lies and Videotape, too. 10 Things To Do In Denver When You’re Dead, not so much. Hence, my title today. So let’s get to it. It’s the little things that set your manuscript apart from the sea of hopeful neophytes competing […]
Part 2 — How to Cut Your Manuscript by 20% or More
In Part we learned that our scenes are the primary repositories of fat in our stories, and the first place we should look to do a little literary liposuction. Perhaps, though, I’m putting this little pony ahead of the cart I’m asking it to pull. I’ve heard from some writers that while the concept of […]
How to Cut Your Manuscript by 20%… and Love It.
A prospective agent, someone you pitched at a writing conference, advises you to cut 20% of your manuscript. Non-negotiable. Which frankly scares the hell out of you because you’ve fallen in love with each and every word you’ve written. Here’s how to do it. And by the way… she’s right, you do need to […]
Writing Voice: Unteachable… Essential…. Elusive. And… Paradoxical.
We are writers. We must compose the songs we sing. We must choreograph the dances we perform. We must design what we ultimately seek to build. We are unique in these things. Composers need not carry a tune. Choreographers need not perform. Screenwriters and directors need not be actors or set designers. Architects need not […]
The Single Most Powerful Writing Tool You’ll Ever See That Fits On One Page
Quick note… I have two killer guest posts running today: At www.bloggingtips.com… and http://the-new-author.blogspot.com. Hope you’ll check ’em out! And now for the continuing run of yesterday’s milestone post: A bold claim, that. But I challenge you to read this stuff — which, when printed, really does fit onto one page — and then argue that […]
Story Structure Series: Epilogue… the Fine Print
This post is about putting everything we’ve just learned about story structure into perspective. Because little about fiction is black and white. And yet, as it is in life, the principles that keep those of us who write it safe and sane are written onto white paper with very black ink. And oh… get ready […]
Story Structure Series: #10 — Part 4… the Final Act
This is the 10th installment in our series on story structure. Prior posts are available in the Story Structure Series tab in the Categories menu. #10 — Part 4… the Final Act There are more than a few writers and teachers out there, some of them orders of magnitude more famous than me (not hard […]
Story Structure Series: #9 – Pinch Points
This is the 9th installment in our series on story structure. Prior posts are available in the Story Structure Series tab in the Categories menu. #9 – Pinch Points Must be the name: pinch points. People struggle with getting their head around it. Sounds like some ancient far eastern therapy. Or something kinky, maybe. Actually, it’s […]
Story Structure Series: #8 – The Second Plot Point
This is the 8th installment in our series on story structure. Prior posts are available in the Story Structure Series tab in the Categories menu. #8 – The Second Plot Point Back in entry #4 of this series we introduced, defined and explored the First Plot Point, which is without reasonable argument the most important […]
Story Structure Series: #7… the Part 3 Attack
The following is the 7th installment in our series on story structure. Prior posts are available in the Story Structure Series tab in the Categories menu. #7 – The Part 3 Attack They don’t call them heroes for nothing. But thus far, through the Part 1 set-up and the Part 2 response, we haven’t seen […]