Brick and Mortar Book Stores: Dreams Gone By

Today I read an article about the future of the brick and mortar book store and even though the self-publishing boon may be calming down to some degree, the dreams that I had of seeing a row of my books on the shelves of Barnes & Noble or another store like that may be long

Juxtaposition: Creating a Foil for Your Heroes

Juxtaposition is defined as an act or instance of placing close together or side by side, especially for comparison or contrast.  Juxtaposed characters are not seen very much in short fiction, but if you are writing a novel you will want to strategically design characters who are foils for your heroes to shine a light on the traits of those heroes. One of the best examples of the use of this

Imagery: Beyond “Show Don’t Tell”

I am sure that if you have attended any creative writing courses at all , you have heard the old addage “Show, don’t tell.”  This is referring to the idea that amateur writers often tell us about the action in their narrative rather than “showing” events through imagery, figurative language and good description.  Over the

Hubris: How to Write Great Villains Into Your Novel

Why do my students love the Joker so much?  The guy has absolutely no redeeming qualities.  He is completely mad, is an agent of chaos, loves to torture the innocent, has brought Gotham City to its knees on countless occasions, yet all the kids seem to love him.  It is because he has what the

Gone, Gone: Are All the Good Ideas Gone?

In the crazy firestorm that is the major motion picture The Hunger Games we need to stop a moment and realize with a small whimper of sadness that all the good ideas may be used up. Don’t judge me.  The Hunger Games has a nice narrative, flows well, tells a good story and is all-in-all

Deus Ex Machina: God Is Not A Crutch

Breaking Dawn is one of Stephanie Meyer’s most popular books, but it has within its pages a literary device that is something good writers should learn to use properly: deus ex machina. Deus ex machina is defined by my handy Dictionary of Literary Terms & Theory (Penguin) as: “any unanticipated intervener who resolves a difficult

A to Z Challenge: Creating Characters Using Mindnode

Today I thought I would post a video tutorial about how I use Mindnode to create vivid characters.  Mindnode is probably the easiest tool for brainstorming and character mapping out there.  A free version is available that allows you to use the basic functions, but the full version is only $20 and is well worth

A to Z Challenge: April Fools Day Fail

Yesterday was a day without most of my children.  My oldest child, Conner was off at a boy scout camp out in southern Oklahoma.  My middle daughter Leigha (pictured above) was at a friends house all day and my youngest daughter Meagan was with her Grammy all day and since they arrived from their trip