Tricks of the Trade

Writing Dialogue with an Invisible Word

July 29, 2011

Does the idea of using tricks in your writing appeal to you?  Are you fond of clever ways to get your ideas across?  These are two questions I’d really like to ask each of you… in private, and with the promise of complete anonymity.  As a brief aside, I believe we all have (at least) [...]

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Some Ideas: Storing for the Future

July 27, 2011

Have you ever run out of ideas?
Can you imagine a time when you might?
Is it possible that one day an idea you had last week will fit perfectly into a current project?
Depending upon the time of day you ask, upon how I feel at the time, I might answer the above questions in any number [...]

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Deadlines Don’t Mean Dead Lines

July 22, 2011

One of my writing heroes, the late Douglas Adams, once wrote:  “I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.”
He wrote to his own drum, to mix metaphors, and his work was phenomenal.
For mere mortal writers, like me, however, deadlines have a different look and feel.  They may actually have [...]

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Please Shut Down the Telegraph

July 21, 2011

Tell me it’s true.  Tell me I’m not the only one who wants the telegraph shut down.
I’m not particularly proud of the fact that I watch about two hours of television a day, and that I often see two movies a month, but frankly, and for the most part, video is compelling.
I also read 2 [...]

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Final Moments: Powerful Endings

July 19, 2011

In the telling of a story, of a novel, we move from point to point, and typically we end the novel short of the final pages.  Why?
Typically, it is because we need room for the denouement, that last bit of tying up the story.  That place where we show that the battle was worthwhile, that [...]

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Fanning the Spark

July 8, 2011

In my experience, there are two kinds of “flash ideas”
One, and I don’t have a good name for it yet, for now I’ll call the Full-On Notion. This is the kind of idea that comes to visit, and brings its luggage alone.  It’s going to stay.  It appears fully-formed, ready to be transcribed, sometimes word [...]

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The Unexpected Novel Ending is a Stone Giveaway

June 30, 2011

 
In my opinion, every novel is a mystery of sorts.
You may not have an insidious crime, there may be no Belgian detective, or clever old woman trying to get to the bottom of a baffling question, but there is the slow reveal, foreshadowing, hints, tricks and teases.  And, if you’ve done your job properly, you’ve [...]

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What Must You Know? What Must You Say?

June 29, 2011

 
With a strong background in Science Fiction, I have been constrained in my career with my lack of in-depth scientific knowledge.
See, it turns out that Science Fiction readers, for the large part, are real sticklers when it comes to truth in story-telling.  Yes, you can have faster than light space travel, yes you can have [...]

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What Percentage of Literate People Speak in Complete Sentences?

June 25, 2011

 
What Percentage of Literate People Speak in Complete Sentences?  Or, to ask it another way, “Are you up for the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?”
If the double title is a bit confusing, let me set it straight.  This is a post about writing dialogue.
One of the hardest things about creating believable [...]

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The Fine Art of Exactitude

June 23, 2011

 
I have often downplayed the use of description in novels, especially when it comes to characters.
My thought has been that in many cases detailed description slows down the action, causes the pace to falter.  It is also something that is difficult to do well.  I still think that.
And yet, description which is properly done is [...]

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