The television season finales were a month ago, and for a month now nothing new has aired. We have two (or three) more months until new content is added. What will I do with myself? I recently moved to the Northern Hemisphere, where this tragedy occurs at the beginning of summer, not winter. Instead … Continue reading »
Tagged with novel writing …
An Interview With a Marketing Manager: Advice to Self-Publishers
Josh Mosey, who runs a blog here on WordPress is a marketing manager who owns his own marketing business, specializing in creating print materials for the publishing industry. He has also worked at a book store for many years. I was able to interview him about his industry and how he relates to self-publishers like … Continue reading »
How a Book is Born: A Humorous Yet Truthful Look at Publishing
Yesterday I brought up the point that it is strange how James Patterson completes the herculean task of churning out 12 best sellers in a year. Today I found an info graphic by Mariah Bear that is a humorous satire of what it takes to get published these days, but it is also laden with … Continue reading »
Tolkien’s 10 Tips for Creating Epic Heroes
One of my most popular posts is Tolkien’s 10 Tips for Writers, in which I glean from J.R.R. Tolkien’s letters of his wisdom about writing. Today I will delve into his letters again, but will focus on the epic character Aragorn and ask Professor Tolkien how he created great characters. 1. Motivational Mirrors – Tolkien … Continue reading »
How to Write Descriptively With Metaphors
Metaphors are one of the most used literary devices in the English language second only to similes. The problem with using similes is that they often cause your writing to become a mine field of quantifiers. (i.e. His breath was like the foul smell of a garbage heap and his face was like a pock … Continue reading »
Lazy Writing and How to Avoid It
I’ve been teaching writing for almost 14 years and have been writing fiction for 25. It has been my experience that anyone can write well if given the proper tools and education. Usually someone tip-toes into my classroom with their short story or poem or random work of fiction under their arm. They hold it … Continue reading »
Juxtaposition: Creating a Foil for Your Heroes
Juxtaposition is defined as an act or instance of placing close together or side by side, especially for comparison or contrast. Juxtaposed characters are not seen very much in short fiction, but if you are writing a novel you will want to strategically design characters who are foils for your heroes to shine a light on the traits of those heroes. One of the best examples of the use of this … Continue reading »
Imagery: Beyond “Show Don’t Tell”
I am sure that if you have attended any creative writing courses at all , you have heard the old addage “Show, don’t tell.” This is referring to the idea that amateur writers often tell us about the action in their narrative rather than “showing” events through imagery, figurative language and good description. Over the … Continue reading »
Hubris: How to Write Great Villains Into Your Novel
Why do my students love the Joker so much? The guy has absolutely no redeeming qualities. He is completely mad, is an agent of chaos, loves to torture the innocent, has brought Gotham City to its knees on countless occasions, yet all the kids seem to love him. It is because he has what the … Continue reading »
How To Find a Unique Narrative Style
One of the most difficult tasks of writing a long novel is the ability to create a narrative style that is unique, flows well, and remains consistent throughout the 50,000 words or so required for a novel. It also must be a style that catches a reader’s eye from the first few pages. I have … Continue reading »
