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Techniques of the Selling Writer – Introduction
“The best way to learn is to teach.” – Frank Oppenheimer This post serves as an introduction to a new series I’ll be writing this year, focusing specifically on Dwight V. Swain’s Techniques of the...
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Techniques of the Selling Writer – Fiction and You
“Too many would-be writers are really would-be authors. They want to have written” – Larry Niven You come home from work. The kids are so happy to see you, they don’t let go of your leg until one of...
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Techniques of the Selling Writer – The Words You Write
“Drawing on my fine command of the English language, I said nothing.” – Robert Benchley The world is filled with critics. Critics of appearance, critics of beliefs, critics of taste…but there’s one...
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Techniques of the Selling Writer – Feelings and Manipulation – Part 2
Motivation With the idea of cause and effect firmly in our grasp, we can safely dive into Motivation-Reaction Units (MRU). Shape Emotion through MRUs At its most basic level, an MRU is a pure...
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Techniques of the Selling Writer – Scene and Sequel
“The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.” – Thomas Paine Conflict — the stuff good fiction is made of. A story without it is like a sugar-free donut. You only end up with a bland, fried...
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Techniques of the Selling Writer – Fiction Strategy
“Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.” – Mark Twain This series of articles assumes you want to write stories and find an audience of loyal readers, who then influence...
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Finding your Genius
Some of you may already be familiar with this TED Talk, but it recently wound up on my browser doorstep and I found the idea agreeable: -Phillip
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I Poke Slow
As a fairly new writer, it would behoove me (sorry if I reminded you of an old boss with that phrase) to pick a topic for my novel that I’m intimately familiar with. That way, I could focus more on the...
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Book Review – The Art and Craft of Writing Historical Fiction
Most writing books I’ve read can sit comfortably on a scale with Technical on one side and Inspirational on the other. James Thom’s The Art and Craft of Writing Historical Fiction definitely leans...
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Techniques of the Selling Writer – Planning: An Overview of Beginning,...
“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” – Abraham Lincoln I apologize, once again, for another large gap in time from my last article. I’d like to...
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For Those Not Feeling It Today
I wanted to share this awesome article written by Herbert Lui. I discovered it through a tweet from Jason Hough, author of The Darwin Elevator which I am currently over halfway through (a review to...
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The Great “Huh…”
Somewhere between Nebraska and California, a thought occurred to me. No, it wasn’t the only one during the three-and-a-half hour flight… As I looked out my airplane window, confronted by perfect...
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You Are Either Ignorant or Inept, Until You’re Not
Please, I hope you don’t take the subject the wrong way. I’m using the royal “you.” In The Checklist Manifesto, Atul Gawande believes we fail to achieve complex goals in life for two primary reasons:...
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Sarah, Thank You for Making Me Feel Bad
Sarah Reinersten made me feel bad yesterday and I can’t thank her enough. She reminded me that I’m often not in the right frame of mind. That morning, I chatted with a gym compatriot about my running...
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Stop Picking Your Nose – The Interstices
I always say that I am able to use the interstices. There is a lot of space between atom and atom and electron and electron, and if we reduced the matter of the universe by eliminating all the space in...
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Your Imagination: The Original Frenemy
“Situations—even “dramatic” situations like bankruptcy, divorce, death and economic recession—cannot directly cause a feeling of any kind until the brain interprets and creates a story about said...
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I Think YOU Can Be A Genius
The saying goes, “Asking the right question is half the answer.”1 There’s a popular misconception of nature-vs-nurture. It’s built into the nomenclature for crying out loud. People bandy it about as if...
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A Pinnacle to Heaven – The Process
A Pinnacle to Heaven is story number three in the #52ShortStories challenge. As the epigraph of the story implies, the springboard for this story came from a Robert Frost poem. I’m thinking pulling...
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A Hundred Eyes – The Process
A Hundred Eyes is story number four in the #52ShortStories challenge. **SPOILERS BELOW. If you have not read the story and want to be (hopefully) surprised, come back to this when you’re done.** The...
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Wake – The Process
Wake is story number five in the #52ShortStories challenge. **SPOILERS BELOW. If you have not read the story and want to be (hopefully) surprised, come back to this when you’re done.** I took a...
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