Tag Line Verbs (and Mostly Those That Are Not)

Hey Folks, Okay, first, to get us on the same page, what I call a “tag line” is what some call a “narrative beat.” I guess there are other names for it too, but here’s why I call it a tag line. When characters are engaging in dialogue, there are two types of narrative that may accompany the dialogue. One is the tag line. The other, I call a brief descriptive narrative. They are distinctly different … Read more

The Unfortunate Case of His Mother’s Virginity

Hey Folks, Enjoy a good noir pulp detective crime novel? Okay, try this on for size. You wake up after a long nap. You reach over to see whether your partner’s awake, and discover she’ll never wake up again. She’s dead. Of a cut throat. In your bed. You didn’t do it. But who did? How did they do it without waking you? And when? And why? Stern Richards, PI, has to find out. Or go … Read more

Safeguard Your Credibility, Part 3

Hi Folks, A long while back, in two parts, I published a post titled Safeguard Your Credibility. Here’s the Original Post and Here’s Part Two. Both posts were all about not displaying ignorance. Yet the only way to avoid displaying ignorance is to eradicate it. And the only way to eradicate it is to learn and continue learning. Of course, all of us are ignorant of some things. Nobody can be aware of everything. But I … Read more

“That” You Write vs. “What” You Write

Hi Folks, In a recent post (as I write this), Dean Wesley Smith wrote “…all that matters is the writing, not the end product.” That seemingly innocuous statement is only one of the many truly major lessons I’ve learned from him and attempted to pass along. To establish credentials, Dean Wesley Smith is a USA Today best selling novelist with over 200 novels to his credit. He has also written several hundred short stories, almost all … Read more