Storytellersunplugged

My mind went on a diet a while ago and already it’s lost nearly 1800 words.  It started by eliminating all those empty adjectives and adverbs that just pile bulk on the body of my work without any real nutrition.  Then it tossed out the interjections (pure comfort words – WOW! huh?).  You’re allowed substitutions on this diet, and so next went a bunch of nouns, replaced by less rich pronouns.  I feel much better now.  I have more energy and I ... Read More

THE KEY LIME PIE-EFFECT by Matteo Curtoni “I haven't had a key lime pie in ten years.” “When ya had it, did ya like it?” “I was a completely different person ten years ago. Let's give key lime a day in court. And a large glass of milk.” – from Natural Born Killers I know – being worried about readers’ reception is essentially silly. And I feel it’s even sillier when you’re not exactly worried and you’re still hard at work on a novel that’s coming out in ... Read More

I think it was the DragonBar that made me remember an early lesson in my writing career.  And that happened because the carp 'n' tuna syndrome that beset my wrists after too many 18-hour marathons at the keyboard eventually led me to try voice activation software.  Dragon NaturallySpeaking with its DragonBar is arguably the leader in that field.  I had tried using it in the late 90s to write a book for a celebrity, but the error rate just killed me when ... Read More

(Pinch hitting today, so my apologies for the lateness of this post. - J) A scene is the most basic building block of a novel.  String enough of them together in the correct way and you’ve got a page turner.  Do it incorrectly and you’re almost guaranteed to have a flop.  Of all the lessons I've learned in my time as a writer, this is the most fundamentally important in my view.  The average novel contains anywhere from twenty to sixty scenes.  Go ... Read More

by David Niall Wilson  I find myself in an odd position, at least odd for me. I almost always approach the plotting and creation of a new novel by starting with one element and branching out. For instance, when I wrote "The Mote in Andrea's Eye," it was because Trish asked me "Why have no hurricanes disappeared into The Bermuda Triangle?" When I wrote "Ancient Eyes," I started with the desire to expand on the hill folk that were depicted in the movie ... Read More

OK. I have no idea what that means. I just want to get this thing rolling. Somehow, in some way, I am writing this at 11 PM on Sunday the 27th because I worked today at the plant. For eleven hours. Go figure. I went to bed last night expecting to dream of Erica the blonde pharmacist at Walgreen’s who makes certain I’m not skipping my bipolar meds (and maybe that’s a hint ... Read More

1 I started Twittering a few days ago. For those of you who don’t know (or care) what Twitter is – www.twitter.com -- it’s basically a way of microblogging from your mobile device. You can draw the attention of your ‘followers’ to a news item on Darfur or pose a Zen riddle or set up an impromptu meeting at the local Starbucks or hype some cool new person or service. You could also announce your arrival at Taco Bell ... Read More

When it comes to writing, every day is April Fools’ Day.  The Muses -- hobgoblins of the mind that they are -- play their usual tricks 24/7/365.  Clear your desk, your computer screen and your brain for them and they will clear out of town.  Cut yourself off from pen and paper and they will immediately begin dictating the great American novel to you.  They have a sense of humor, a sense of irony, and no sense of obligation whatsoever.  Swim a ... Read More

(WHEN IT ABSOLUTELY CANNOT FUCKING WAIT ONE MOMENT LONGER) By John Skipp Dear class – Not to put too fine a point on it: I can’t play with you guys this month. My ace collaborator and fellow SU instructor Cody Goodfellow and I have a new book to hand in, one month from now, and it’s still got a whoooooooole lot of work left to do. So here’s your assignment for today, should you choose to accept it: 1) Take out your most pressing project: the one ... Read More

When it rains, it pours. We've all heard that a million times, and though it's a generalization with no real basis in fact – it's also true that when things get overwhelming, they only seem to get crazier. This year has been that way for me, so I figured I'd take a day here, write a post and see if I could put it in perspective. For several years I had very little published…those were recent years. It happened ... Read More