Tweet Part of my job these days–my actual job, for which I get paid–is being a writing coach. Obviously that’s most of the motivation for this site, too. And now that I’m finding some success as an indie writer, I even have fans contacting me to ask for tips on getting started as a storyteller. […]
Tweet On Tuesday I wasted some of your time bragging about how great I am. Right or wrong, I thought it would make a good foundation. Now I’ll try to make it worth your while. This is what I really wanted to write about anyway. Shoulders to Stand On There’s another foundational point I should […]
Tweet I spent Tuesday telling you what you already know (about me, about my books, and about my publishing company). I figured maybe I should make up for that by spending today sharing some news. You might’ve already gotten a hint at some of it if you follow me on Twitter. This morning I posted: […]
Tweet Yesterday’s post on the narrative difference between conflict and adversity ended with some specific advice: Avoid adversity by putting malicious cause behind your protagonist’s setbacks. The best way to do that is to make your antagonist responsible, but sometimes it can be a challenge to follow through on that. The trick is to manage […]
Tweet It was a couple weeks ago when I talked about the importance of designing good story questions. Since then I’ve talked about the diverse properties of bones, and some rules for using story questions to build a structurally sound novel. Leaving out the cute story about my kid, most of the discussion has been […]
Tweet Way back in January I talked a little bit about playing karate with my little girl. At the time I had all kinds of things to say about her learning respect and trust and large motor skills all in one little activity. At the time, I referred to it as one of her favorite […]
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 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 […]
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 […]
