Take Courage
As a writer, are you willing to take the steps that you need to, in order to succeed? The other day, I got to visit with my nephew. He works as a very successful physical therapist, and said, “You know, I often have people ask me how to become a physical therapist, and so I […]
Writing on the Run
Many wannabe writers are pretty sedentary. We tend to watch too much television, read too much, play video games too much, and chat online too much. When we do work, we sit too much. But over the years I’ve noticed that the most productive writers tend to have one thing in common—they exercise. One of […]
The Perfect Story: Promise
I’ve been working on a series of articles on what constitutes a perfect story, and so far I’ve concentrated on some of the qualities that such a story would have. I could go on in that vein for another week, but suffice it to say that a perfect story will exhibit plenty of virtues that […]
The KAV Cycle, Part 2
In my last article, I talked about how you can begin to maximize your audience by appealing to all of the senses, and I spoke about appealing to kinetic, audio, visual, and scent in particular. In theory, this will help you reach 100% of your audience. But as with most elements of writing, it can […]
The KAV Cycle, Part 1
Each of us is accustomed to taking in information, to learning, in our own way. Some people learn things by doing. For example, a mechanic might learn how to use his hands to manipulate wrenches and screwdrivers so that he can tear apart a car engine, virtually in the dark. While another person might find […]
The Perfect Story: Economy
Some virtues that would be found in a perfect story almost go without saying. For example, a perfect tale would be economical. There are a number of ways that a story can lack economy. Most authors probably think here that I’m going to harp on descriptions that are overwritten, or conversations that don’t need to […]
The Perfect Story: Flow
In considering the virtues of a perfect tale, some things come to mind that ought to be mentioned but that are rather easy to discuss. A Perfect Tale Flows Logically You don’t have to tell the reader everything in a perfect story. You can withhold information in order to create mysteries. You can mislead the […]
The Perfect Story: Engrossing the Reader
It almost would seem to go without saying that a perfect story would be engrossing. Yet I find that rather than just enumerate the virtue, I need to explain a little about how that is done. Have you ever read a story that you just could not put down? Have you ever read a story […]
You and Your Ugly Baby
I was working on a scene yesterday that somehow felt flabby. The prose itself was fine, but I realized that the underlying action, what was happening in the scene, just felt bleh. So I had to reimagine the scene, searching for ways to make it fresh. I wanted my novel to be novel, one of […]
Do What You Love
Years ago, I had a reporter call and ask, “If you could have any job in the world, what would it be?” The only answer I had was, “I’d just keep on being a writer.” Since it was Career Day, the reporter wrote an article in which he posed that question to dozens of people. As […]