German writer Paul Heyse (1830-1914) based his theory of Falkontheorie on the ninth tale of the fifth day of the Decamaron. The tale is about a man who sacrificed everything for the love of a woman and when he still rejected her he then sacrificed his prize falcon as well, thereby winning her heart. The idea or … Continue reading »
Tagged with literature …
Emotive Dialogue
Yesterday I recorded our latest podcast for Fanboys on Fiction, and during the conversation, Ryan McKinley brought up the devilish problem of using “he said/she said” in dialogue passages. This made me think of a good way that we could remove these redundant story killers from our dialogue and in the process make that dialogue more … Continue reading »
Character and Background: Harmony and Conflict
Writers have strengths and weaknesses, and sometimes I feel like I have most of the latter. Often I find myself in the trench of “showing” the story to a reader, describing expressions, hinting at the setting, and trying to characterize through dialogue so much that I forget that there is a virtually untouched area for … Continue reading »
E-Publishing Predictions for 2013
Today I received an e-mail update from Mark Coker because I am a Smashwords member (that is, I have published to Smashwords and they see fit to send updates my way about their company). Mark Coker, president of Smashwords.com, which is a wonderful vehicle for self publishers to publish their work for free in every format … Continue reading »
Writing a Novel: A Retrospective
This Broken Earth is finished, as far as the series versions. I will go back these next few weeks to fine tune and tweak the entire thing so that I might produce them as one volume. These will include a print edition through CreateSpace, and a Kindle, Nook and iTunes version as well. After spending … Continue reading »
I’ve Been Nominated for the Blog of the Year 2012 Award
I am honored and thankful that I have so many followers of my blog who think highly enough of me to nominate me for things, but Blog of the Year is really nice. Thanks go out to Vicki Acton at “The View Outside“, a great and informative blog about writing and also to Alex Laybourne, … Continue reading »
The Weekend Marathon…and a Roundup
After I write this post, I’m signing off. I’ll be back on Monday, and will write yet another blog post, but this weekend is the hard-core write fest. I have to reach a goal of at least 7,000 words to stay on track for the 21st release date. How will I do this? I have … Continue reading »
NaNoWriMo Tip #28: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly
So maybe you’ve finished the NaNoWriMo or maybe you are slaving away at the final pages (and if you are, you need to stop reading this RIGHT NOW and get back to work), but I’m sure that as you peruse the text of your masterpiece you will find some scenes, character dialogue or something else … Continue reading »
NaNoWriMo Tip #17: Action In the Dialogue
Every year I teach Shakespeare, one student invariably asks the following question: Why does Shakespeare not write stage directions in his plays? The answer to this question is always the same: If you will examine his dialogue, you will find that he does. For example, in Hamlet Act 1.1 we have this exchange: BERNARDO: Who’s … Continue reading »
Book Release Party: The Lost Crew
As a writer, it is always important to surround yourself with other writers. However, my good friend Ryan McKinley wasn’t writing much at all when I met him almost 10 years ago, but that has changed dramatically since 2007. My other good friend Jerry Bennett wasn’t a full time artist when I met him almost … Continue reading »
