Write at the Light

Say something smart, get their attention, say something smart. Don’t waste people’s time. Earn the desire to turn the page. There’s a lot of wisdom in marketing and advertising writing for folks who write fiction. Here’s a nugget from a top advertising writer-turned-mystery writer. Read the whole interview at Lawrence Bernstein’s Info Marketing Blog. Read [...]

Amazon.com WidgetsAt a party the other night, I asked a writer working on his first novel what kind of novel it was. He said it was a romance, and he said it with that self-deprecating expression that makes you know that he expects you to sneer. I told him that I thought romance was a [...]

Mystery author David Hewson talks about a technique he uses for getting into the heads of his characters. He listens to conversations between the on ordinary subjects, how they express themselves, what opinions they hold, how they react to each other. It looks like a valuable resource, and I plan to try it. Heck, I [...]

Populating a novel can demand quite a cast of characters. School friends, great-grandparents, pizza delivery boys, and the accident victim, along with the regular cast of major, minor, and walk-on characters who have to names, ages, ethnic extraction, and all the rest of the paraphernalia that comes with being alive. Not only that, but they [...]

A lot of fiction suffers because the author mishandles showing versus telling. Both are necessary in a piece of writing. Showing is what brings the reader into the midst of the action and makes the reader feel what the character is feeling. There are times, however, when it’s wise to skip lightly over events that [...]

Does anybody here have an interest in doing children’s picture books for the Chinese market? I heard from a Chinese Canadian who wants to work what seems to be some kind of joint venture. All I know about is what the email says, but I’ll forward the email to anyone who is interested. Email me [...]

Don’t miss this terrific analysis of a poster for Charlie Chaplin’s The Kid” at Big Hollywood. I’m blogging it partly because I want to go back and review it a few more times to get it all. Share and Enjoy:

Point of view. It’s so easy and yet so hard. It’s easy, because it’s just first person, second person (which is never to be used), third person. Pick one. Write. But it’s more complicated than that, because they branch into alternatives, and the rules can be broken effectively. Third person can be omniscient, change from [...]