by mike | Nov 9, 2015 | Books, Editing, Publishing, Uncategorized, Writers' Conferences, Writing |
It’s novel-writing month or some such thing again, so I’m going to revisit last year’s post on the matter. My opinion has not changed. Okay, this week I’m going to be a curmudgeon—something that I do quite well, actually. There are organizations, conferences,...
by mike | Jan 5, 2015 | Books, Editing, Publishing, Read & Critique, Thrillers, Uncategorized, Writers' Conferences, Writing |
Back in my salad days, when I took on just about any writer who had a pulse, I worked with a woman from the Midwest—let’s call her Helen—who had written, according to her, about three-quarters of a thriller. I first evaluated what she’d completed, and quite frankly,...
by mike | Nov 3, 2014 | Books, Editing, Publishing, Uncategorized, Writers' Conferences, Writing |
Okay, this week I’m going to be a curmudgeon—something that I do quite well, actually. There are organizations, conferences, workshops—whatever—that stress sitting down with your laptops on fire and writing novels just as fast as you can. Write 5,000 words over a...
by mike | Mar 12, 2014 | Books, Editing, Publishing, Read & Critique, Sword & Sorcery, Uncategorized, Writers' Conferences, Writing |
Quite a few years ago, when self-publishing, e-publishing, POD and such were in their embryonic stages, literary super-agent Richard Curtis (who at one time represented me) wrote an op-ed piece in Publishers Weekly titled, “Who’s Guarding the Gates?” The article...
by mike | Jul 27, 2013 | Books, Editing, Publishing, Uncategorized, Writers' Conferences, Writing |
Actually, I hadn’t planned on doing a follow-up to my post from earlier this month, “Coaching Writers: Why I Do What I Do.” But just recently I’ve received so much good news from former and current writers of mine that I couldn’t resist sharing it all. The first bit...
by mike | Feb 10, 2013 | Books, Editing, Publishing, Writers' Conferences, Writing |
A novel is made up of quite a few elements, among them characterization, dialogue, point of view, setting, and so on. But in my mind, the most important element—without question—is the story’s opening, what we call the HOOK, or more specifically, the narrative hook....
