Tweet I’ve got a nephew with Sensory Deprivation Disorder. It’s an uncommon phenomenon, and a strange one at that. Basically (as I understand it), his body has trouble recognizing the physical impact of his environment. That kinda sounds like the making of a sci-fi novel, or like some dreadful problem. It’s really not that bad. […]
Tweet Yesterday I talked about some of the things I learned about reader expectations in my Category Fiction class. By way of example, I mentioned some techniques for building suspense in Thriller novels. There was more, though. To my horror, I realized after six months of promoting my suspense series as a Thriller that it’s […]
Tweet Last week I started reviewing some of the novels we read in my Category Fiction class with a pretty brutal panning of our Women’s Fiction samples. Along the way, I mentioned a startling similarity in their plots — not just in those two books, but in all Women’s Fiction novels. I was genuinely surprised […]
You know how we speak of someone’s being well-read? In some circles, I’d be the opposite of that: terribly-read. I can hold forth on plot and character of a great many classics so convincingly, you’ll come away from our tête-à-tête thinking I’m all sorts of brilliantly literate. You won’t know that when it comes to classic literature, I’m kind of a fake…
Tweet A couple weeks ago, Trish took the kids to Wichita for a weekend and left me home alone. And, no, I’m not talking about my lonely Christmas. This was a few weeks after that. It was on the calendar as an opportunity for me to get some work. I tend to do that when […]
Tweet This month we’re talking about a Category Fiction class I took last fall, and some of the things I learned from reading eleven novels along the way. The novels, I should mention, were hand-picked by our professor. She said she wanted us to see published books — successful books, many of them books with […]
Tweet I started this week with a brief description of the Category Fiction class I took last fall. One of the big surprises in that story was how much I enjoyed the class. The class’s merit wasn’t the only thing that caught me off-guard. I’d spent some time dreading all the driving I’d have to […]
Many moons ago — before Facebook became open to the general public, when “twitterpated” was still a Bambi and not a social networking reference, and before YouTube made movie stars out of all of us — I started a blog. I don’t remember why I did it. I plunged into writing my first post without giving it any real thought before I started. I hadn’t the foggiest idea what I was doing…
Tweet In the fall of 2010, by decree of my graduate advisor and in support of my pursuit of the Master of Professional Writing degree at the University of Oklahoma, I was required to take the “elective” course Category Fiction. I was less than thrilled. From the course description it was clearly a lecture-based, informational […]
Tweet Yesterday I laid out my plan for a collaborative writing project based on some prewriting packages. Today, I’d like to talk about those packages. The Civilization Book This one actually started as a suggestion from Toby. It’s not a new idea, but it’s a fun idea, and it could give rise to something very […]
