The Latest
Book Blitz: Shadowed Is Everywhere!
It's here! Yes, my "man who does not exist" has been coaxed out of hiding for a day--I don't have Paul's paranormal senses, so this is...
The Invisibility Challenge
I'm working on a blog post about invisibility powers, and what it might be like to maneuver when the world can't see you. This is going...
No Creatures Needed
(or, anything They can do in, We can do in better) The darkened sky shifts as the breeze kicks up, switching dry leaves about the roots...
Testing for my Flying Belt
I see superpowered people. Really. When I look at a skyline, I see the angles Spider-Man would need to swing in through an upper window, if...
Quiet Scene or Boring Scene? What can make the difference
We call them "character moments" or "pacing breaks" when we write them, or "boring scenes" when somebody else tries and fails. We know the story isn't...
Dialog, Plot, and a bit of Spock — Layers brought to life
Dialogue might be the most powerful tool a writer has. It's absolutely the easiest one to lead in any direction you want, and yet… Just by...
Writing Travel Scenes: What to Keep Moving
Do you ever notice how often "the hero's journey" isn't just a metaphor? Travel's a huge part of many stories, sometimes long days or weeks on...
If your scenes look too similar… try the Tarzan Test
It's one of the nastiest problems in writing, because it can pop up either because we're struggling or because we're getting in the groove: we keep...
Bracketology in Story Plotting
What do sports brackets have to do with writing a story? Almost everything. A plot depends on conflict and contrast between its characters, and more than...
Ten Writing Tricks from Gaming
The following are tricks I've learned from role-playing games, board games, and other gaming fun, that help me remember what works in writing. (The Unified Writing...
Order of a Sentence – with Maralys Wills
(The Unified Writing Field Theory — searchings and findings on what makes stories work) If a story moves forward one step at a time, each of...
Plot and the Power of OR
"Depth" is a word people have used different ways about fiction, sometimes not being that clear what they mean--just some sense that a character winds up...