I’m slowly getting a grasp on (some) types of mystery plots. Here’s my first one, which I’m going to call The Mistake. A crime occurs. There are three suspects. The criminal is not one of those three suspects. The solver rotates through investigating the three suspects, and may even form a valid-sounding theory about one of […]
It’s not you, or rather it’s not you you. Every time you want to change a habit, there’s a price to pay. The number of days before you can establish a habit varies wildly. Adding workload to your brain uses a disproportionate amount of calories. The cycle of adapting to change is practically the same one that
I’ve never understood Book of the Month clubs. But then…I read a lot of books.* I signed up for a clothes of the month club, basically. AND WHOAH. THEY SEND ME CLOTHES I LIKE AND I DON’T HAVE TO BE OVERWHELMED WITH ALL THE SHOPPING AND MORE OFTEN THAN NOT THEY FIT. Am I willing to
Book Business Idea If You Want One: Tailored Indie Book Boxes Read More »
So I’m working on a series, A Fairy’s Tale, which so far is made up of a bunch of loosely related twists on ’80s-style horror novels/movies. Books have rules, right? Things like, “The magic system, if any, is X” or “The main character gets the most POV chapters” or “The writing style in this book has
Breaking the System: When Your Series Sneaks Up on You Read More »
Bone to pick. Not gonna name names, because it’s all too common. All writers have ethical choices to make. Not all stories are ethical to write. But let’s stick with horror today. A story that makes a reader want to die, for example, is an unethical story. A story that makes a reader want to become
I’m working on writing better headlines, using info from Copyblogger. Sorry if this gets weird… … Whodunnit? That’s the major question of most mysteries (leaving aside thrillers and suspense for now). And yet, most of the advice about writing a mystery that I’ve read is about hiding clues in your work–one of the least important parts
I’m trying to go through the Copyblogger archives, can you tell? I’ve determined that the most valuable thing I can do, from a marketing standpoint, is clearly establish in my own mind what value my writing has for other people. In my most objective, reasoned observations: My writing has no value. None whatsoever. Now, I
SEVEN REASONS TO MILLION DOLLARS AND YOU CAN TOO Read More »
November was a busy month. No NaNoWriMo, but I still accomplished about 130,000 words this month all told. Finished the ghostwritten adventure thriller, finally. WHEW. Soundtrack: Vocal Sea Shanties. Finished the ghostwritten cozy (second in its series) on time, although with changes to the plot. The stuff in the outline wasn’t working, and the client
November was a kind of tipping point for me, although what it is exactly that I tipped between, I’m not sure. It feels like I tipped between “not confident” and “confident” on a personal level, as in, “She is a confident person.” But where that came from or what it means, I don’t know. It’s probably
A selection of the best books I read in November, which, admittedly, still isn’t done yet but close enough: Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nahisi Coates. A series of essays, framed as a letter written to his son, on the poisonous Dream of a white America. Just amazing. The Omnivore’s Dilemma, by Michael Pollan.
