“A villain is the one who knows the most and cares the least.” – Chuck Klosterman I get a lot of good blog ideas from radio quotes. That one came in a July 9, 2013 NPR segment interviewing Mr. Klosterman, who has just written a book about real
Read more →OK, first as regards the computer problems: They are tearing down and rebuilding a house just down the street from me, which evidently was the cause of the problem. Unfortunately, the work is ongoing…and on top of that, they are going to start tearing down and rebuilding
Read more →Sorry folks; I am having a variety of computer problems that prevent a post today. Regular service will (I hope) return on Sunday.
Read more →Sometimes it seems that there are a zillion different metaphors for how writers construct a plot. There’s the sculpture metaphor (carve away everything that doesn’t look like an elephant). There’s the pottery-making metaphor (add a lump of clay, work it until you have the center, then shape
Read more →Plot is one of the things that has nearly always come easy for me. I had to spend a long time learning how to develop characters, how to write dialog that didn’t sound like one person monologuing, how to put together a setting that worked, and how
Read more →Years ago, when I was just starting to learn my craft, I attended a panel at which someone asked a question about plotting, plots, and how to come up with a good plot. One of the panelists immediately replied that the best way to learn to plot
Read more →Practically every how-to-write book I’ve ever read (and I have read quite a few) breaks down “writing fiction” into a bunch of different areas – plot, characterization, structure, dialog, theme, etc. – and then examines each area separately, usually at the level of sentences or paragraphs. This
Read more →Subtext. According to one of my friends, it’s a “writer thing” that doesn’t matter much to ordinary readers and can therefore be ignored – indeed, that should be ignored if a writer wants to appeal to the maximum number of readers. I am pretty darned positive that
Read more →Every so often, I get a request from someone to do a guest blog post or answer some questions for a survey article someone is writing. I almost always turn them down; it is hard enough keeping up with twice-weekly posting on my own blog without adding
Read more →I have officially been in the book business since the late 70s, when I started work in the finance department at B. Daltons; I’ve been selling my writing since 1980, when Ace books bought my first novel, Shadow Magic. So that’s a bit more than thirty-three years,
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