Horror, the Art of Scaring People (Guest Post)
Horror—the art of scaring people.
Or is it? Is horror really the experience of having someone put in inexplicable peril with no obvious way out?
How to Win Writing Contests—and Big Publishing Contracts
THE ONE WITH ALL THE LISTS When I was in college, I wrote a story and—on the advice of my professor—entered it into a competition. It won third place, and as I considered my fifty dollars, I realized that I had made over twice the minimum wage writing that story. So I wondered, “If I […]
Silver Bullets
If there were just one thing that I needed to know to become a great writer, what would it be?
Taking Ownership of an Idea
How do you make an idea your own? I think that you have to invest yourself into it fully. You have to reinvent it.
Five Strategies for Getting Started
Sometimes you’re not in the mood to write, but you know that you should. Maybe you’ve set a goal and hope to reach it, or you’re on a deadline. Here are a few strategies that you can use to get started:
Provide Your Own Inspiration
I was on a panel at a convention once where I was asked, “Who inspired you to become a writer?”
Cutting to the Heart of Your Story
5 Ways to Know You’ve Got a Good Scene Many times as an editor, I will look at a scene and ask myself: “Does this scene belong? Does it move the story along? Does it change the story in new and exciting ways?” Too often, the answer is, “No, it’s wasted text.” I recently looked […]
Measuring Up to the Competition
Whenever you express an idea, you can look at the poetry of your language, your use of diction, your originality, and compare it to other samples of the same idea.
How Does Your Character Feel? Part Two
Your character will need to come from somewhere, and will be strongly influenced by family, friends, national agendas, religious leaders, and so on. In short, your character is, to some degree, partly a product of a much larger milieu.
How Does Your Character Feel? Part One
When you’re describing a setting, it’s important to bring the scene to life. Part of bringing a scene to life, though, is to explore how your character feels about the setting.