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Tag Archives: Unstressed Syllables

Some Simple Advice for the Novice Storyteller

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. […]

Writing Is Work (Guest Post by Ty Johnston)

Writing is WORK, whether traditionally or indie published, to be succesful (even just making it your living, not getting rich)

How to Write a Business Letter to Your Boss

Tweet This site started out as a writing advice blog, and in the earliest days I spent as much time offering Technical Writing advice as I did talking about storytelling. It’s been long enough now that I suspect I’ve mostly lost the crowd that came around for tips on good professional writing, but today I […]

On Being a Boy

Tweet Once upon a time, I was a boy with nothing to do but explore the worlds I found in my imagination, and decorate them with little bits of mundane reality. I lived for free time and fairy tales. That doesn’t really narrow the context at all, does it? Very well. Let’s say once upon […]

On Scheduling: A Quick Poll

Tweet I know I said Tuesday that I’d probably be dropping down to one post a week now that school has started, but that wasn’t a promise. Just my expectation. Besides, today’s isn’t really a post.  It’s a quick question (although it could have ramifications for Posts of Thursdays Future). See, my reasoning for cutting […]

On Scheduling: Fall 2011

Tweet As you’re well aware, I’m halfway through my pursuit of a Master of Professional Writing degree at the University of Oklahoma. My classes start tomorrow. But I was on campus yesterday running hither and yon, signing up for tutorial time with the chair of my graduate committee, applying for a two-hundred-dollar parking pass, and […]

On Bookselling: Distraction

Tweet This year I’ve missed a lot of blog posts. I missed some because I was so busy with school work. I missed some because I was so miserably sick. And I missed some because I was so frantic finishing up novels or promoting them to an oblivious public. I’ve had lots of good reasons […]

On Publishing: Writing for Work

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 […]

On Self-Publishing: The Life-Cycle of Created Content

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 […]

On Other People’s Books: The Cinderella Deal and First Lady

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 […]