by mike | Apr 20, 2017 | Books, Humor, Life, Publishing, Science Fiction, Uncategorized, Writing |
A humorous book doesn’t have to be all funny, and a serious book doesn’t have to be all serious, as I first discussed in this 2013 post. I’ve learned a lot in life through trial and error, or by accident. More specifically, this can be applied to writing. We could...
by mike | Apr 6, 2017 | Adventure fantasy, Books, Editing, Publishing, Research, Uncategorized, Writing |
This post from 2013 addresses a major issue for folks who say that they want to write a book. Having been a teacher, coach, editor—and, of course, a novelist—for the past couple of centuries, I have heard it all from wanna-be writers about how difficult it is to make...
by mike | Mar 23, 2017 | Books, Humor, Movies, Science Fiction, Uncategorized, Writing |
This is a “just-for-fun” post that I first ran in 2013. In addition to the serious coaching and editorial work that I do for my writers, I also engage in a lot of good-natured banter with them. Hey, why even bother if you can’t have fun! Some of our back-and-forth...
by mike | Feb 27, 2017 | Books, Editing, Life, Read & Critique, Uncategorized, Writers' Conferences, Writers' Retreat, Writing |
What does former National Basketball Association great Bill Russell have to do with leading classes and workshops about writing novels? I’ll tell you…shortly. But, first things first. MY STUDENTS NEVER KNEW I began facilitating novel-writing workshops in the early...
by mike | Feb 23, 2017 | Adventure fantasy, Books, Editing, Horror, Publishing, Uncategorized, Writing |
Thus ends my three-part series, first presented in 2013, on how writers can engage their readers at the start of their novels. Okay, one more post on how writers engage their readers with a strong opening hook, and then I’ll get back to other important matters, such...
by mike | Feb 16, 2017 | Books, Editing, Publishing, Uncategorized, Writing |
In Part One of this series I wrote about how important—how necessary—it is for writers to engage their readers immediately with an element of the story called the narrative hook. Both literary agents and, ultimately, readers want to get into your story quickly, or you...
