Why Teaching Research Writing Is More Important Than Ever

As Harlan Ellison said: “You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. Everything else is just hot air and farts in the wind.”

What Andy Weir (Author of “The Martian”) Can Teach Us About Writing

This summer I burned through several books in the down time between publishing The Terminarch Plot all the other things I had to do around the house.  One of the best books I read this summer, soon to be a major motion picture starring Matt Damon, was The Martian by Andy Weir. The book is amazing, a very

Teaching the Research Paper – A Practical Approach

I have taught English at the 11th grade level for over ten years and quite frankly I have been through many different plans when teaching students how to write a research paper. In my opinion, the research paper (namely a paper using source material for support) should be taught to students much earlier in their

Writing a Novel: When to Research

For This Broken Earth I spent at least 6 months researching everything from super viruses to Syrian end games.  I interviewed a U.S. Army colonel, an astrophysicist, a biologist, police officers, a computer security specialist and several others in order to write a novel that was as believable as possible. Research is highly important to writing

NaNoWriMo Writing Tip #5: Sleep

I have shifted to dropping daily writing tips because I have given all the time management tips I live by.  I will now be posting writing tips to make your life this month easier if you are attempting to do the NaNoWriMo competition.   It is highly important to get at least 7-8 hours of

Research and the Period Novel

I spent the better part of six months researching biblical end-times scenarios, possible ways that the world could fall apart geopolitically, super-viruses, and another six months outlining my novel to incorporate all of that knowledge.  One of the biggest problems that period novels have is when the research takes over the novel entirely. For example,

Google Zeitgeist: How a Writer Uses Trends

As a fiction writer, it is important to know your audience.  If you have never done any research to discover what demographic your proposed novel might reach (or not reach) then you may be wasting valuable time writing a novel that no one will read. Google Zeitgeist is a fantastic engine created to show researchers

The Quill Pen: What Writers of the Past Can Teach Us

If I look around my “writing area,” I find several tools at my disposal to help me write a novel.  I have a Macbook Pro with software like Diary, Scrivener, Mindnode and Pixelmator that help me go from ideas jotted down in my daily Diary to a finished novel complete with a self-designed cover.  I

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

Feeding Squirrels: Taking AP Students to Do Research at a College Library

Yesterday I took my AP students to the University of Oklahoma Bizzell Library to do research for their critical perspectives paper.  Their assignment is to read a canonized novel of their choosing and then write an analytical research paper viewing that text through a critical lens (i.e. Marxist, Feminist, New Historical). Each year I take a group