Tweet Last week I told you all about classical scene structure for novels. The core of it is that the scenes driving your story should always be tightly focused on a direct conflict between two characters, and the scene should end in catastrophe for the protagonist. One More Word on Catastrophe Now…there is a great […]
Tweet I started the week talking about writing 17,000 words in three days…and all the catastrophes that made it necessary in the first place. Then yesterday I talked about a new writing technique I’ve been studying in class that pushes a novel toward lots of conflict and catastrophe. Today I want to make the connection. […]
Tweet Okay, I’ve been mentioning my Master of Professional Writing program left and right, but I want to say up front that full credit for the information in this week’s and next week’s posts goes to Deborah Chester. She’s the professor teaching my Writing the Novel class, and a lot of these ideas come straight […]
We’re talking prologues, my dear inklings. Should we have them? Or should we cast them upon the cleansing fires of editing and rewrites, never allowing them to mar another of our manuscripts again?
Two days ago, Becca and I made a trip to the salt plains of Oklahoma to scout out likely locations for my cover art photoshoot.
It was an adventure, and we found some likely spots, but I won’t regale you with that tale. Right now, the adventure is beside the point. The point, my dear inklings, is that now my worries have set in…
Tweet In the fall of 2009, I started a grand experiment. The English department at my alma mater lost their Tech Writing professor at the last minute, and the chair of the department asked me to step in and teach the class for a semester. I agreed, and then scrambled to put together a lesson […]
Tweet I’m a week late posting this, and you’ve all got my apologies for that. I ended last week’s conversation on self-publishing with Thursday’s claim that it’s an author’s responsibility today to learn the hard work of publishing. Here’s the thing: it’s tough work. I’m a week late posting this because I’ve been in a […]
Tweet Ohhhh, my dear inklings. I did a scary, scary thing. I let go of my baby, my precious, my sweet toddling kiddo. I sent my tender little one out into the world, went back into the comfort of my home, and closed the door. And then, I sat back and waited in agony. What […]
Tweet On Tuesday, I published the second book in my series. I posted the same little sales blurb in half a dozen different places, but around here I gave a little something extra. I told you about the process of writing the series, and my plans going forward. That’s not necessarily something I talk about […]
Tweet First things first, I need to take care of a little business. You might have already seen this on one of my other sites, but I’ve got three significantly different audiences across all three and, y’know, I really need to let all of them know. After all, it’s a good book. You should read […]
