Hi Folks, In the interest of full disclosure, I first posted this as a blog entry on April 2 in my Daily Journal at HEStanbrough.com. To continue the discloure, this is a technique I learned from Dean Wesley Smith. I find his openness and instruction (inadvertent and otherwise) pretty much invaluable. But to the topic at hand. Anyone who knows me or has talked writing with me for more than five minutes knows I don’t outline. … Read more
As I mentioned in the Introduction, the setting is the location in which the scene takes place. Simple, right? Not really. The inability to write the setting is where a lot of writers lose readers, and even the readers don’t know why. If nothing in the first few hundred words pulls them down into the story, they simply drift away. Readers must be grounded in the setting. The more firmly they are grounded in the setting, … Read more
Note: Not sure why this post didn’t send through MailChimp yesterday morning, but it should go out this morning at 8 a.m. Also, for anyone who would like a copy NOW, I published this full book yesterday (Writing the Character-Driven Story). If you are a subscriber, you already received your copy. You may also catch it here one chapter at a time through March 30. Or you may purchase a copy at your favorite ebook retailer … Read more
This will be a difficult concept for many of you to grasp. Why? Simply because of all of the myths that have been drummed into us during our entire lives. The big myth here is that your appropriate role as the writer is Almighty Writer on High. (Hear the angelic chorus?) But if you grasp this concept, it will start you along the path to Freedom as a writer and more fun than you’ve ever had at … Read more
Folks, Before I give you Chapter 1, a shout out to an excellent writer, Sara Therese and her most recent blog post, which I hereby declare Required Reading for anyone who enjoys good, strong, emotional writing or Love. You can find it here. Okay, here’s Chapter 1 — What Do You Mean, Character-Driven? Staple it to the inside of your eyeballs, folks: All good fiction is character-driven. No matter the genre, fiction isn’t about the science … Read more
For these special posts, I’m providing only an excerpt via email. Please click Read More or Read On near the bottom of the email to read the entire post at the website. Remember, you can get this and other of my works by subscription now at a substantial savings. To learn more about that, click the Subscribe to My Work tab on the website. About the Blog Version Writing the Character-Driven Story is going to be … Read more
Hi Folks, Okay, first, wishing you a Happy New Year. May it be everything you want it to be. As I write this, I recently visited Dean Wesley Smith’s website (link below) and read some of the comments there. The comments are almost always as informative as the posts themselves. In fact, I regularly pass along tidbits from his site over on my Daily Journal. (Subscription info below.) To sign up for my diary of a … Read more
Hi Folks, I’m sending this out a little early because, darn it, it’s the Christmas season and I wanna give you a few presents. I’ll slip in an appropriate post on the 21st just to keep the routine of every ten days going. That’s when this one would have gone if I’d left it to its own devices. First, Merry Christmas. If you don’t celebrate Christmas, I hope you have an enjoyable holiday season. Also, I … Read more
Hi Folks, Back on track for writing during my quiet time. In fact, during the wake-up, I wrote an article, basically, to rebuff a HuffPo article in which the author got pretty much everything wrong. As my response was not really long, I’m including it in this post. For reference, the full Huffington Post article is here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/janet-tavakoli/apple-taxes-authors-patie_b_8711882.html I hate it when such obviously slanted stuff is offered (and bought, unfortunately, by many writers) as fact. … Read more
Hi Folks, As you can tell by the date, this post is not part of the regular rotation of posts on writing (and writing-related matters) that come out on the 1st, 11th, and 21st of each month. But it will be important to at least some of you. 1. I’m posting to my Daily Journal again. As the name implies, that Journal comes out pretty much every day. Mostly it is a diary. In it, I … Read more