Storytellersunplugged

Get the podcast - or Subscrbe in iTunes When I started writing in 1999 after a long hiatus, I didn’t plunge straight into a novel. That probably sounds logical, but some writers skip the short story and cut their teeth on books. John Grisham hasn’t written many short stories, for example. Some successful novelists claim they have trouble with the short form. For me, it was a no-brainer. I had written short stories in college, and I felt the need to exercise my ... Read More

I wanted to talk this month about Middles and offer some advice on how to keep yours from sagging. No, I'm not talking about belly fat. That's a different blog. I'm talking about the middle of your book, the place where you have the greatest chance of screwing up and losing your reader. Nine times out of ten, if you are going to lose a reader, it will be in the middle of the book, in that long, seemingly endless stretch that ties your ... Read More

Earlier this month I received my editorial letter on the third book in the Templar Chronicles series, DIE SCHATTEN (The Shadows). For those of you unfamiliar with the term, an editorial letter is just that – a letter from your editor. In it, the editor will point out and explain any changes and revisions they would like to see made to a manuscript before it goes into final production. The intent is clear – to use the editor’s ... Read More

by Mort Castle How did the phrase he thought to himself ever come into being, let alone become accepted usage? To whom else can you think, unless you are telepathic? How to Tell a Bad Paperback Part I: If you read In the Tradition of on the cover, that's almost a guarantee of cookie cutter contents. I've done no research on this, but it seems that poets read more fiction than fiction writers read poetry. Methinks many fiction writers would profit by reading poetry; the idea ... Read More

By Richard Steinberg for Steve Savile “En kedja är inte starkare än sin svagaste länk.” Steve Saville is off showing us all – by example – how to be a human being; so I’m gladly filling in for him today, as Brian Knight will this time next month. As many at Storytellers Unplugged have volunteered to do in the coming time, for as long as it takes Steve to get back to us. Why? Why will we (who all are overburdened ... Read More

(The real world intruded and prevented Matt Schwartz from posting an essay today, so I hope you won't mind this revised piece I wrote a while back for my other column over at www.chizine.com) By David Niall Wilson Since my earliest days as a reader I’ve been enamored of books that form a series. I collected the Hardy Boys and Tom Swift, then later moved on to fantasy trilogies, The Destroyer, and The Executioner, and have now “graduated” to detectives, forensic experts, and ... Read More

Plotting: George Guthridge Synopsis: In July and August I wrote about how I use nonfiction to help students write fiction. Basically, I show how to use National Geographic and other periodicals to isolate nonfiction “tidbits” – interesting bits of trivia that could make for very short term papers. For example, did you know that the neck rings worn by women in parts of Asia and Africa do not stretch the neck? They suppress the clavicle. The students then work ... Read More

"To put it in words, to write it down, That is walkin' on hallowed ground, But it's my duty…I'm a missionary." Depeche Mode (Look what you've done, Chet…) I think everyone has moments when they look at life, the world, governments, religions, or the fabric of reality itself and think – what if? I've mentioned before that I'm a great proponent of what-if stories, and recently I've thought some about how writers fit into the bigger picture. Scientists create new paradigms by looking at universal ... Read More

Frank T. Wydra It’s one of those suicide gray days for which February is famous. Outside, month old snow is etched with the black of week-old melt and the temperature hovers around twelve above. The sun rises after I do and sets before the gin and tonic are mixed. Actually, it’s not. But if I let myself believe it was the midsummer, sunshine day it is, I would not be sitting here, hunched over my keyboard watching twelve point Times Roman ... Read More

By Dick Hill So my friend puts me in touch with a guy who asks if I want to be a contributor to this collaborative journal, Storytellers Unplugged. I’ve read some of his entries, and some from other folks, so I wasn’t totally unfamiliar with it. Write about writing? Not exactly the best fit, I thought. In the first place, I’m not a writer. I don’t write. Other than emails, an occasional letter to the editor, ... Read More