This purely decorative picture demonstrates the opposite of an active opening. Next in our series of posts expanding on my Writing Tips list, we have: Open active: Start scene changes underway and then explain how you got there…unless change significant. First: what do I mean by openings? In this case, I mean…
Instead of an essay, this week, we have a photo: How cool is that? This is a picture from the Manassas, Virginia Barnes and Nobles Science Fiction/Fantasy. Look closelky at the books across the top shelf. All these books are the output of two authors. ;-)
Guest Blog this week: the charming Charles Grey weighs in for the Heming Way: The best new piece of advice on writing I know of comes from William Goldman via David Morrell’s book Lessons From a Lifetime of Writing. The whole book is invaluable – it’s the only one I’ve read all the way through and then immediately…
Today we have a treat, a guest blog from fellow writer Joshua Young. I liked his ideas about the endings of stories so much, I thought that you all might enjoy them, too. ———————————————————- Back a few million years ago, when we chipped all of our tools out of flint and all of our computers had dial…
Seemed like a nice picture for this subject.Click on picture for info on book.Includes essay by me. I am taking an online writing course this month with Writing Instructor Extraordinaire Margie Lawson. When she is not writing/teaching, Margie Lawson is a psychologist who works as a therapist, so she really gets to see people…
Today, I am going to tackle another of Elmore Leonard’s Ten Rules For Writing: 10. Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip. A rule that came to mind in 1983. Think of what you skip reading a novel: thick paragraphs of prose you can see have too many words in…
I have for some time now been a combatant in an undeclared war with a modern school of style that tries to push itself forward as “correct” writing—as if it were grammar—instead of as a style school. I knew this school got its start from Hemingway and that many authors follow it. But it is has recently become…
Interior Dialogue: Readers don’t trust dialogue. Have your characters think, and have what they think be juxtaposed to the dialogue, showing a new angle. This one I learned the hard way. When I first started writing novels, I was under the impression that the best writing was like a screen play, all dialogue. So, I set out…
Senses: Add three to five senses to every description. When I started writing, I used to swap my pages done that week with two friends. We would read each other’s work and send back comments. My friend’s comments were almost universally the same. I had not included any sense impression except for sight.…
Mephisto and his Staff I am in the throws of finishing the polishing of Prospero Regained, the third and last book in the Prospero’s Daughter series. I have finished the whole thing, except for one new scene that I need to write to add to the epic battle near the end. So, what, you…