"There are nine and sixty ways of constructing tribal lays,"And every single one of them is right!" From In the Neolithic Age by Rudyard Kipling People love to debate things. Writers, being people who use words for a living, love to debate things even more than the average Joe. One thing writers really love…
Out in paperback as of yesterday! Folks, We have a special treat today. I received permission to reprintm for our reading pleasure, an article written by my agent, Richard Curtis. Richard Curtis, in addition to being a super-agent extraordinaire, has for many years written articles on the publishing world that have appeared in various…
Today we have a guest blog from writer and fellow Johnny, Ginger Kenney. Ginger blogs at: www.gskenney.com/ginger Neurolinguistic programming, or NLP, ties together concepts from neurology, linguistics, and the psychology of behavior. It presents a model of the ways people perceive, process, and respond to the world around them that can be useful for writers in developing…
Last week, we discussed the Payload Moment—the moment that lifts or deepens a given scene or character. This week, I promised to discuss how to do this. But first…a confession. In Gone With The Wind, the little slave girl Prissey declares boldly that she has helped women give birth many times. But…
The raven Thought whispers the secret of the PayloadMoment into Odin’sear Payload: Every scene/fight/sex scene should have some moment that moves the plot along or heightens awareness, drawing the reader into something greater. Villains should reveal something important during a fight, and romantic partners should learn more about each other or reveal secrets. …
* — which is actually Romantic Tension Two, part two, making it, in fact, Part Three. In this installment, we are continuing our discussion of the zing moments…those moments of heightened intimacy in a romance that produce a sudden jolt in the reader. First kisses. The moment she says, “I love…
Snufkin (pictured above)was one of my childhood crushes. After last week, I felt that there was more to be said on this topic. But first, a brief history: Before she married my father, my mother was a dancer. (She still dances. She is still taking ballet classes today.) When I was young, she shared…
The next tip from my list of Writing Tips is: Romantic Tension: To make a character seem attractive to another character (at least to women) list a character trait of character A and an emotional reaction to this trait from character B). (example: she had an air of mystery that intrigued him. Or, her…
Measurements by example: Tall as a man, rather than six feet high, where applicable. Hmm. I have promised to write a post on each of my on each of my Writing Tips. Not sure I have a whole lot to say about this one, though. It is pretty straightforward. This idea was suggested by…
Hey folks! Welcome fellow writer Jordan McCollum and her wonderful insights about that wonderful tool of the suspence writer, The MacGuffin: The presence of suspense is . . . a feat and shows promise, since it indicates that the writer is writing more for the reader than for himself. (Noah Lukeman, The Plot Thickens, p.…