Dreaming of Writing a Bestseller
This is a valid desire. It is, after all, why most of us write—to share our stories and messages with as many people as possible.
When Science Fiction IS Science Fiction
It is a profound mistake to interpret the genre of science fiction literally
Ten Questions You Need to Ask Your Characters Before They Can Stay In Your Story
our story lives and breathes through your characters. Through them your premise, idea and your plot come alive. Characters give your story meaning; they draw in the reader who lives the journey through them. Without them you wouldn’t have a story—you’d have a treatise.
Dreams and Perceptions…The Stuff of Science Fiction
I firmly believe that we ultimately define ourselves through our experience and our approach of the unfamiliar. A new relationship. A stranger in town. A different culture. An alien encounter…
Our Deepest Fear
It’s not what you think it is… There’s a poignant scene near the end of the 2005 movie “Coach Carter” where a student finally responds to Carter’s insistent question of “what is your deepest fear?”. […]
On Writing: Moving From Prosaic to Spectacular
What makes some writing stunning and other writing lackluster? Mostly, it’s the language—the words—you use. And, it isn’t just words you use; it’s how you use them. Here are a few things you need to […]
How to Accept Rejection
We’ve all suffered rejection and disappointment. Perhaps that job you coveted or someone you loved who might have even led you on before dropping you. It hurts. But you move on. And it does get […]
Who Is Your Audience, and Why Should You Care?
The artistic process, whether painting or prose, is admittedly the child of self-expression. The long-standing image of the cloistered artist in her studio — hunched over her writing desk or standing before her canvas to […]
The Power of Myth in Storytelling
“If a being from another world were to ask you, ‘How can I learn what it’s like to be human?’ a good answer would be, ‘Study mythology.’ ”—Joseph Campbell For Joseph Campbell, perhaps our era’s […]
Using the Subtext of Body Language in Storytelling
Kinesics is the study of “body language”, which explores how movements and gestures project a person’s hidden thoughts. Blushing is an obvious reaction. But more subtle ones can be used. When body language contradicts verbal […]
Are You a Closet Synesthete?
“A person with synesthesia might hear and taste her husband’s voice as buttery golden brown, feel the flavor of food on her fingertips, sense the letter J as shimmering magenta or the number 5 as […]
Female Heroes in Literature
For my birthday last year, I went to the cinema to watch the popular—and somewhat controversial—Hunger Games. Well, controversial among some critics and followers of critics, anyway. I came across a particularly juicy tidbit by […]
How to Hook Your Reader and Deliver
A great story opening arouses, delays and rewards. Constructing a compelling beginning—often called a hook—is a common challenge for even established writers, and one of the most important parts of a story. The opening should […]
How To End Your Story
Have you ever seen the movie The Party with Peter Sellers? The first scene is priceless. Sellers plays an actor who is shot in a war scene; he subverts the script by refusing to die. […]
Demystifying the Synopsis
A synopsis is a larger version of the book jacket blurb you see on the back of most paperbacks in the bookstore. You write a synopsis for the same reason: to sell a story idea […]
How We Will Tell Stories in the Future
In the early 1400s, when Lady Vivianne, the Baroness Von Grunwald (hero of my latest book, The Last Summoner) lived, one of the largest libraries in Europe was at the University of Cambridge; it held […]
Why You Want to Go To A Writer’s Convention
A short while ago I attended (and participated as panelist and guest author) at the World Fantasy Convention in Toronto. And I was all jazzed about it! Why?… Well, let me tell you why… If […]
Finding the Write Time and Place
Look and you will find it—what is unsought will go undetected —Sophocles Finding the Right Time and Place to Write During a time when I had a demanding job as an scientist with […]
Should You Judge a Book by its Cover?
Most readers—me included—will pick a book off the bookstore shelf because its cover interests us: the title intrigues; the cover illustration attracts; the author’s name is one we trust. If you don’t know the author […]
Using the Subtext of Body Language in Storytelling
Kinesics is the study of “body language”, which explores how movements and gestures project a person’s hidden thoughts. Blushing is an obvious reaction. But more subtle ones can be used. When body language contradicts verbal […]
Ten Questions You Need to Ask Your Characters Before They Can Stay In Your Story
Your story lives and breathes through your characters. Through them your premise, idea and your plot come alive. Characters give your story meaning; they draw in the reader who lives the journey through them. Without […]
The Martian Chronicles and Other Metaphors
They came because they were afraid or unafraid, happy or unhappy. There was a reason for each man. They were coming to find something or get something, or to dig up something or bury something. […]
What Genre Are You Writing … And Marketing?
Our multiplex world of discerning consumers is getting used to having what they consume laid out clearly and categorized. Literature is no different. Since the time of the ancient Greeks, when Aristotle proclaimed in his […]
The Careful Writer: Some Notes on Composition
During my recent reread of Strunk and White’s “The Elements of Style”, this little book yielded more good advice that I wish to share with you. “The shape of our language is not rigid,” they […]
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