September 2017

Marketing bootstrap.

This marketing stuff gets a little easier.  As I try different things, as I get more feedback from readers, I’m starting to realize who my readers are and what they want.  Why me?  Why not Stephen King?  Or rather why me and Stephen King? What they want tells me how to market (not that I’m […]

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What do you have to say?

The loudest people in the room, the ones who dominate the conversation, aren’t the most interesting ones.  They mostly just have this trick of being animated while they talk.  Excited about what they have to say.  At great length and, often, volume.  Wit and charm help.  So does a sense of order in one’s storytelling.

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Cheesy

Cheesy is when you have something that uses a lot of tropes, but there’s no twist on the tropes.  Cheesy-but-good is rereadable and rewatchable cheese. Nothing wrong with cheesy per se. But once you put a twist on it, you’re doing something on another level entirely. … If you liked this post, check out my

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Bias is Like Smoking

Bias is like smoking.  Or rather it sets up shop on the same not-quite-conscious level as smoking.  A trigger occurs and the bias follows with a knee-jerk reaction.  It’s not a conscious intention, so it’s easy to justify.  It feels natural, part of the natural order of things–maybe not right, exactly, but that’s just the way

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But Me

But can’t you see I’m the me?  The only true me?  I’m the special one.  Any group to which I belong is automatically the special group.  In any situation which is black and white, the white side is the one that has built itself around me, because I’m the me.  I graciously admit when I’m

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Creativity is…

…the art of splitting people into two groups and trying to be both of them. Pantsers: WTF, dude, none of this makes any sense. Character voice is good. Lyrical, poetic. Starts with a showy bit of action or witty dialogue that comes completely out of nowhere. “But can’t you just get this?  Are you stupid?  I

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Unlikable Characters

Three ways to do it: The character gets deeply humiliated right away. Events surrounding the character are such that you immediately go, “That’s why X is so broken.” The character is so deeply charming that you get over it. You can also mix the three. You can’t write a dull character who’s mildly unpleasant and

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