A combination of bad advice and bad writing as a result of that advice has kind of got me stuck on PRINCE OF CATS. I have two other projects I’m working on right now, but in a few months, I’ll be back to it, and I’ll have to fix it, which is a daunting prospect.…
Suzanne Johnson posted today on Roni Loren’s writing blog, Fiction Groupie1. Suzanne is discussing picking names for your characters. This is a topic relevant to EVERYONE and a particular challenge to fantasy authors who so often create cultures from the ground up and can’t name their protagonist Joe despite how awesome people named Joe are.…
I’ve participated in a couple of Writer’s Digest online seminars, one featuring Kristin Nelson and one feature Sara Megibow both from the Nelson Agency. During Kristin’s presentation, she mentioned that the main plot of your book, that first serious hook, should occur within the first 30-50 manuscript pages. Now this took me back. Having come…
If you were lucky enough to be Liz Poole, a hotel night auditor named LurkerWithout, or an agent with incredible literary sense, you would have had the opportunity to read my manuscript JEHOVAH’S HITLIST. This is a manuscript where I explain why just because the protagonist is 15 years old doesn’t make it a young…
I had this post planned awhile ago but all I saved was the title. I vaguely remember what it was about, but it ties well into a discussion I am having with Liz Poole about feedback I received recently. First, here’s a general rule that I learned the hard way. If you are going to…
It’s hard to keep track of topics when you’re on a variety of soap boxes. I’ve written in two different live journals, hosted a podcast, and now how this blog/journal. Sometimes you think you’ve written about a topic when you haven’t. Or, you think you’ve written about it in one place when really it was…
The general rule is that no sign exists until after someone does what the sign instructs not to do (thus my favorite sign is “Do not lick the C-4”). You should consider the Bill of Rights to the American Constitution much like a sign. The reason why those 10 items were enumerated? Because they happened.…
The topic of custom words in fantasy has come up in a variety of places I visit lately (Book Country, et al.), and while I don’t hold it against people who choose to have names for months other than January-December, I find it a distraction and a lot of work for very little return. So…
The scenes I have the most trouble writing are men posturing. I blame fantasy for this. It is one of the most used scenes in classic fantasy when two alpha males begin barking at each other and bumping chests. It also reads like the stereotypical nerd living in his parents’ basement writing the hero he…
I do not write mystery/thriller, so I have no idea if what I’m about to say applies to the written word. That kind of question is better served by Jennifer Hillier. But it was the procedural drama that ended my 5-year hiatus from television1. Now the best procedurals on television today (or at least over…