revised draft 12/16/2012 Delarosa scowled at the door after Huang left. Damn it. The man had the potential to be a good detective if he weren’t so goddamn lazy. Half the department was crippled by their reliance on that infernal machine. If it hadn’t been bluntly obvious from the way they all mumbled under their […]
Kiss Me Twice draft – 3 Read More »
Today’s piece is a little unusual, and fantastic. Blake Charlton talks about his favorite bit of fiction in general, the opening line, and in the process gives some darn fine advice. As you can probably guess, I’m sensitive to the subject of opening lines so this one really resonated for me. I think you’ll like
My Favorite Bit: Blake Charlton talks about opening sentences Read More »
A while back one of the former storyboard artists at Pixar, Emma Coats, (@lawnrocket on Twitter) started tweeting the “22 Pixar Storytelling Rules” And now the cast of Writing Excuses reviews them, and offers some applications. These rules cover character development, plot structure, process, and much more. No, we weren’t able to give them all
Writing Excuses 7.48: Pixar Rules for Writing a Compelling Story Read More »
Thank heavens I decided to hang onto the loaner computer I got from Shanna Germain when I was having keyboard issues. Now the trackpad on my computer is behaving erratically. We’ve tried a driver restore, rolling back to a system restore point, and today I’m having to try a full system restore. If that doesn’t
Writing would be so much easier if my computer would stop breaking. Read More »
Work continues apace on my NaNoWriMo project, and I’ve just posted Chapter 2 for those of you reading along. It has the same password as Chapter 1. My normal pattern, when I’m getting feedback from readers on a work in progress, is to stay two chapters ahead of where they are. I find that it gives
For those reading along…. Chapter 2 of my SF murder mystery is up. Read More »
Please note that this is a draft. If you stumble upon this post randomly, please take a moment to read the ground rules and background before commenting. — Headquarters looked like someone had kicked over an anthill and stolen the queen. Officers milled outside, desperate to get in, but kept back by crime scene investigation procedures. Inside
Kiss Me Twice draft – 2 Read More »
Want to read along as I work on my NaNoWriMo effort? It’s a science-fiction murder mystery so different from The Glamourist Histories by almost every measure. This is also a little odd, because I invoked the Zokutou clause, which says: You have to start your novel from scratch, unless you are a previous NaNoWriMo winner. If you have already
Want to read along as I work on a SF murder mystery for NaNoWriMo? Read More »
Thanks for wanting to read along! Just a reminder that you are reading raw drafts. Please don’t offer sentence level critiques at this point. What I’m interested in is how the story is striking you. I’ll go back and fix the word-smithery once I’m sure that the structure is working. Specifically, I want to know what things bore
Kiss Me Twice draft – 1 Read More »
For Thanksgiving yesterday, we had a quiet and convivial meal at Bill Shunn and Laura Chavoen’s home. Laura is an excellent cook, if you ever get the chance. This also marks one of three times I’ve seen Rob during daylight hours in the past four months. No, he’s not a vampire, but the process of
How was your Thanksgiving? Read More »
Writing Excuses has been doing pep talks for NaNoWriMo and the latest is from Howard. How is your NaNo going? You were expecting to hear from Howard on Wednesday, right? HAH! That deadline just FLEW by. But Howard is here for you now. It’s Black Friday, November 23rd, 2012, and you’ve probably been counting words…
NaNoWriMo 2012 Bonus Episode 3, with Howard Read More »
As usual, the class last night was fascinating. If I haven’t mentioned this before, or if you are just catching up, I’m taking an erotica class from Shanna Germain. While I don’t have any plans to cross over to writing erotica, I am interested in having the tools in my box even if my scenes
Erotica homework 4: Water rites — Vincent’s POV Read More »
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
Protected: Water Rites — Vincent’s POV Read More »
So you’ve sold the audio rights to your novel. Yay! What should you do now? Allow me to offer some tips from my experience as both an author and as an audio book narrator. Read your book aloud. Yes. The whole thing. Even a 700 page monster should not take you more than a week to
Debut Author Lesson: Audio books Read More »
I have been seriously looking forward to Brenda Cooper’s newest book, The Creative Fire, for a while now. Why? Well, Brenda is smart and she’s a darn fine writer. I’ve enjoyed everything of hers that I’ve read. Take a look at the catalog copy for her new book. Nothing can match the power of a single
My Favorite Bit: Brenda Cooper talks about THE CREATIVE FIRE Read More »