advice and competition for writers
How one book has influenced my thoughts on writing When I was nine, I stole my older sister’s copy of Salem’s Lot and that was it. I was hooked on horror. Ask me who my favorite author is, and I’ll say Stephen King with no hesitation. But my favorite book was written by King’s coauthor [...]
Don’t ever let them teach you how to write! The implications of this statement are encouraging and thought provoking, to say the least. It’s a line that gets to the heart of the matter, forces us to sink our teeth into something deeper – beyond the scope of words, obliterated with “grammatically correct” verbiage… …because [...]
Recently, I was having a conversation with Lou Aronica, publisher at The Story Plant. Lou had asked for my feedback on a review copy of one of his author’s novels. My remarks were mildly critical, so I offered Lou some insight on my reading background, in defense of my opinions. We all have biases. No [...]
We’re writers, and we all love a good character. You know, a character who’s something of a “character.” And we all know that one of the clearest, simplest, and most effective ways to illuminate a tasty character is by using dialect in dialogue. Good use of dialect lets our readers “hear” the same character voice [...]
We’re going to talk for a moment about the word “toward,” or is it “towards”? But first, a quick and embarrassing personal story: I used to think I was a pretty smart guy, and loved to toss around $2 words to demonstrate my incredible vocabulary and mastery of the English language. Notice that I used [...]
April’s Foolish writing contest: “Bring out yer Spam!”
Presenting our November Fiction Winner for “Best First Chapter” ~ From Raggs: The Bent Man
Writing vs Social Networking: Which “pie” is yours?
How do you find time to write?
Here’s our quick and easy December Jackpot Contest: “Best Opening Sentence”
Recent Reader responses