Warring Villains as Plot Device

Unlike many Americans, I’m watching NBC’s Timeless. I say this because it has been announced that the show will not be renewed for a second season. But, folks, you need to watch it.  It’s really good. If you do not watch the show, and want to watch it, the following contains spoilers but it taught me

Allow Your Protagonist to Fail

I have regular meetings with a friend who is probably one of the best people to talk to concerning story.  I recommend that every writer have a few people in their lives that they can talk to about writing. My partner in writing crime is Jack Johnson, the artist who designed the cover of my

3 Ways to Keep Your Villain from Monologuing

When my kids were little, they loved watching the Disney Pixar film The Incredibles.  During this film there is a scene where the villain, Syndrome, defeats Mr. Incredible with his terrible machine and then when he’s telling Mr. Incredible about his evil plans Incredible throws a log at him.  Syndrome dodges it, traps Mr. Incredible in

3 Writing Lessons From Marvel’s “Daredevil”

If you haven’t binge watched the living daylights out of Marvel’s “Daredevil” over on Netflix, then this post may get a little spoilery.  I will begin with this warning, because I’m going to discuss a few aspects of the series that could spoil it for those who haven’t watched the series yet. For that I

Giving a Protagonist a Hidden Motivation

Recently I have been in the middle of writing the first installment of a new series entitled The Five Rims.  The first book is titled The Last Terran, and my protagonist is definitely out of the ordinary. Guillermo March is a former security officer with the C’Tuulian Planetary Police Force, the only Terran to work for them,

Why Should Readers Care About Your Protagonist?

My current WIP has sent me through several psychological states: first elation, then dread, then depression, then elation again, and then probably bi-polar disorder. I spent nearly 6 months designing five separate solar systems complete with flora and fauna, alien races, cultures, history, and tons of other things that probably would bore you to death.

New Podcast Up: Villains and Walking Dead Spoilers

On this episode we discuss villains. What makes a great villain? What are the ingredients for excellent and engaging villains that readers will love to hate and love to somehow empathize with? We also discuss the AMC debacle with the Season 5 mid-season finale goof where AMC actually spoiled their own program for West Coast

Killing the Villain: A Daring Plot Device

[First of all, I would like to say that this blog post contains spoilers about the current season of The Walking Dead, so if you are not current, then do not read any further.] At the end of season 4 of The Walking Dead we were introduced to a new villain: the cold, cannibalistic Gareth.  Gareth is a

How to Embed a Theme Into Text

There are so many great texts out there, but as I always argue with my students, there are definite differences between entertainment writing and literary writing.  One thing that is most lacking in popular fiction today is some type of overarching theme that speaks to the human condition.  Has this indeed been lost on this

Why Do I Write?

I’ve had a pretty rough week as a writer.  I have quibbled over two projects I currently have in the works, and realized that I haven’t really done enough in the planning stage to continue.  I have spent the past two days without a single word written and it’s killing me. My problems are thus: