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Is ‘finger exercises’ metaphor a stretch?
An old man once stopped at a rummage sale I was holding and asked, “Who’s the writer?” He held in his hand an old copy of “Writer’s Market,” one of the only books we were selling (since my wife and I...
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Writing presents an endless series of gambles
Brace yourself because I’m about to lay a brilliant analogy on you. (Or am I?) I’m not a master poker player by any means, but while reading through the first draft of my latest novel, I couldn’t help...
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Battling genre bias with the magic of an open mind
Reading books with dragons on the cover says something about a guy. In high school, the fact that I elected to read novels in my spare time sent a message of its own, never mind the cover art. Other...
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I should be thankful, but…
These are exciting times for writers, I’ve been told. Often. Never mind that fewer hardcover and paperback books are being printed and distributed throughout the country. Even though brick-and-mortar...
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When it comes to dialogue, don’t trust the word on the street
One of my earliest college writing assignments involved a little espionage. Having spent plenty of time playacting the part of spy in my youth and, in later years, transplanting such imaginative...
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The two sides to every story
Ask a hundred different people for their definition of “good writing,” and you’ll get a thousand different answers. On a very basic level, the creation of a story can be divided into two parts: concept...
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Something scary for Halloween: my poetry
I’m not a poet…and don’t I know it. If that didn’t elicit a groan, then maybe a line or two from “Rain,” a poem I wrote in college, will: Edgar Allan Poe’s poetry also is scary — albeit in a good way....
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The Good, The Bad, and The Ungrammatical
Giving grammar short shrift is a surefire way to get shot down. Recently, I was invited to enter an online writing contest, one in which the competitors posted partial or completed stories on a...
View ArticleThe secret beauty of bad ideas
Writers never kill their darlings. We just lock them away…in a dungeon…indefinitely… Continue reading →
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Which short stories will make the cut for my collection?
I’m starting to think there’s a fine line between an embarrassment of riches and ordinary, old embarrassment. It’s not the first time I find myself debating quantity versus quality. And perhaps it’s...
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