6 Ways Novelists Can Use Target Marketing — a Guest Post from Jan Bear
“Once upon a time, there was a little girl who always wore a red riding hood. . . .” It’s a familiar story, and it’s been told a million ways. If you’ve got a group of writer friends, you could make a parlor game of it: Tell it as a board book for a 3-year-old. […]
3 Questions You Must Ask Your Characters — A Guest Post by C. S. Lakin
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) […]
David Gerrold and the Cabin by the Lake: A Guest Post by Art Holcomb
“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 […]
The Power of Symbolism: A Guest Post by Nann Dunne
by Nann Dunne Recently, I watched an episode of CSI:NY that had a scene that impressed me enough to stick in my mind. In the scene setup, the character Jo, a policewoman played by Sela Ward, accompanies a female witness home. Shortly after the woman goes into her bedroom to get some clothes, Jo calls […]
“Scheherazade” — A Guest Post from Art Holcomb
by Art Holcomb Two pieces of paper hang above my desk. One is a quote (more about that next time) and the other is the picture below. It is from One Thousand and One Arabian Nights. As the tale goes, the Persian King Shahryar would marry a new virgin each night only to slay them […]
“Get Out of Your Own Way” – A Guest Post by Art Holcomb
(Art Holcomb knocked it out of the park for us with a guest post six weeks ago. He’s back, another killer contribution. This guy is good. L.) GET OUT OF YOUR OWN WAY by Art Holcomb “An exhaled breath must be cast away from you before you can take another.” Years ago, a friend of […]
NaNo Now: A Guest Post from Frederick Fuller
I did NaNo this year and won (50,664 words). It was a blast; enjoyed every moment. Got up at 6 a.m. everyday and wrote until I made my daily word count, usually going well over in around three hours. Read Story Engineering and planned carefully during October. Wrote an outline, character study, backstory, theme, premise–everything. […]
“One Author’s Writing Path” — A Guest Post by Nann Dunne
Each writer treads upon a writing path unique to him or her. Hearing about others’ steps along that lonesome and sometimes treacherous path can bolster our confidence as we try to push past life’s detours and persist toward our writing goals. Here’s my story. I hope it encourages you. My fiction writing didn’t begin until […]
The Personal Story Arc: A Guest Post by Art Holcomb
(Editor’s note: this should be mandatory reading for anyone with a serious writing bug. One word: brilliant.) “I never know what I think about something until I read what I’ve written on it.” – William Faulkner More about the quote later. I started my writing career as a 12 year old in San […]
Guest Post: Dave Monroe on… Story Coaching
A short, self-conscious intro from Larry: Here’s my morning: my wife and I go for a power walk. I’m a little quiet, she asks why. I tell her I’m mulling today’s NaNoWriMo post, and one other thing. She asks what. I tell her that one of my favorite Storyfix guys submitted a guest post, at […]