Easy to say, hard to put into practice. As writers, we’re all in love with every word we grunt-and-push out of the glob of meat between our ears. We dote on them as though they were children, for that’s what they are. Writing is creative, and...
I go to my coffee shop (no, it’s not StarSchmucks) for a dirty chai on ice. I walk in, I admire the place, I listen to the music I’ve likely never heard before. I leave a nice tip, because they do amazing dirty chai there (it’s black chai tea and a shot of espresso, bt...
Now that finals for Spanish are over and School’s out for the summer, I’m able to get back to what I really want to do: dive back into the seedy underbelly of 80’s New York City.
Harry DeMarko and Toni Bennett are fresh off their last case and already in over their head...
A quick little tidbit about non-dialogue. Or “show, don’t tell.”
Do this exercise with me. Head out to your favorite used bookstore and find a copy of your favorite book. I don’t care what it is, but it would be helpful if it’s by an author known to be exceptional at wh...
Everyone’s got a gimmick to sell you about how to write. What to do. Where to put your apostrophe. When to run ads. How to frame your keywords. All the things you need to know to get your writing out there. But not everyone is going to explain to you WHY to write. I’m...
This is harder than it sounds. As writers, we are also readers. That means we’re primarily consumers of literature. I use the term as a blanket for any and all writing, from comic to Shakespeare. Literature is what we love. So much that we’...
You want to get your first draft on paper as soon as humanly possible. Never once in the history of writing has what a writer wrote first (there’s a tongue twister for you) been what appears in print. (Online,...
Look… it’s easy to make a moustache-twirling Snidely Whiplash villain. Look at basically any movie or tv show. Look at 99% of them. Go ahead. I’ll wait.
*ahem*
Here’s the skinny on villains: they’re a foil for your protagonist(s). Literally. Think of...
I’ve said it before. But unless you have product, the editing, marketing, and sales just won’t happen. I don’t care how flawed it is: finish it. I don’t care how rough it is: finish it. I don’t care how you deus ex’ed the ending: FINISH IT.
