All well told stories can be broken down into six sections. While there are many ways to breakdown a novel’s structure I like sticking with the six part approach. For the next six weeks I will be discussing one of the six parts to a novel. This week, part 1 of 6, is...
These last few weeks I’ve been struggling with the editing of my first chapter. Editing is an understatement. The truth is that it needs to be completely rewritten. Since the beginning of the year I have started over three times. It seemed everything that I was...
The dreaded writer’s block. It happens to all of us. During my first draft of Dust I spent almost an entire month going nowhere. I was stuck in my story and didn’t know where to go. Another time, while writing a magazine article for work, I almost missed my deadline...
This week’s message is brought to you by my phone. This is due to me traveling out of town this weekend. My original article was going to be about writer’s block. I’m going to save that for next week. This week is going to be about the opposite, prolific...
One of the biggest things I struggle with when I write is staying on task. Sometimes after a few minutes into writing my mind begins to wander. While I’m more conscience of when I begin loosing focus it’s still something I have to stay on top of. I recently tried...
Life, it’s a crazy thing. Right when you think you have everything under control something comes up and disrupts the whole flow of things. November was a rough month; it felt like there was a plague looming over our house. If one person was sick the rest of us were...
NaNoWriMo if fully underway and I’m roughly 9,000 words behind. Luckily I’m finally feeling better. With the slow start I figure if I write 3,000 words a day I will catch up by the end of the week. So why push myself to get this next story written? The answer is...
The Book is done, well sort of. The second draft is done. It’s currently in the hands a select few to find everything wrong with it. So why only a select few, why not give a copy to everyone I know? Since your book is written in stages it should also be read in...
The first thing I need to say is that I am very sorry for not getting an article out last week. While I love the rain, the power apparently does not. The time has finally come. It’s time to start writing my second book. The second book will be a continuation of this...
Due to last nights storm I had no power for several hours. Unfortunately this has caused this week’s article to be postponed till next week. In the meantime read/watch Ray Bradbury’s classic The Halloween Tree. It’s what I’m reading to my girls to...
