10 Things to Consider Before Writing a Novel

Currently life is preventing me from reaching my daily quota on my new writing project.  I suppose if I hadn’t considered a few rules to set for myself before I began this project, I would be spinning my wheels in the endless morass of counter-productivity. I set some basic ground rules before I began writing,

Writing the Ending First

My latest offering, Come Apart, due to hit digital and print queue’s everywhere in March, was an experiment of sorts.  According to my proofer’s comments the experiement was a complete success. I wanted Come Apart to be a puzzle.  I wanted to write a novel much like Pines by Blake Crouch, which is a story that unfolds a bit

5 Ways To Focus On Writing When You Get Off Track

The holidays were rough for writing, at least as far as my personal goals were concerned.  However, even though I had great family time with relatives and watched my children dig into their Christmas gifts un-distracted, I did manage to edit through my new WIP a couple of times. But that’s 53,000+ words, Roger.  How

Guest Post: A Series of Potentially Dangerous Experiments by Amy Paulussen

The television season finales were a month ago, and for a month now nothing new has aired.  We have two (or three) more months until new content is added.   What will I do with myself? I recently moved to the Northern Hemisphere, where this tragedy occurs at the beginning of summer, not winter. Instead

An Interview With a Marketing Manager: Advice to Self-Publishers

Josh Mosey, who runs a blog here on WordPress is a marketing manager who owns his own marketing business, specializing in creating print materials for the publishing industry.  He has also worked at a book store for many years.   I was able to interview him about his industry and how he relates to self-publishers like

How a Book is Born: A Humorous Yet Truthful Look at Publishing

Yesterday I brought up the point that it is strange how James Patterson completes the herculean task of churning out 12 best sellers in a year.  Today I found an info graphic by Mariah Bear that is a humorous satire of what it takes to get published these days, but it is also laden with

Tolkien’s 10 Tips for Creating Epic Heroes

One of my most popular posts is Tolkien’s 10 Tips for Writers, in which I glean from J.R.R. Tolkien’s letters of his wisdom about writing.  Today I will delve into his letters again, but will focus on the epic character Aragorn and ask Professor Tolkien how he created great characters. 1.  Motivational Mirrors – Tolkien

How to Write Descriptively With Metaphors

Metaphors are one of the most used literary devices in the English language second only to similes. The problem with using similes is that they often cause your writing to become a mine field of quantifiers. (i.e. His breath was like the foul smell of a garbage heap and his face was like a pock

Lazy Writing and How to Avoid It

I’ve been teaching writing for almost 14 years and have been writing fiction for 25.  It has been my experience that anyone can write well if given the proper tools and education.  Usually someone tip-toes into my classroom with their short story or poem or random work of fiction under their arm.  They hold it

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