Category: Writing
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It only takes a spark.
I remember a song we sang at church when I was a kid. It started out with “It only takes a spark to get a fire going.” Even though the song doesn’t mention writing in the slightest, I think the message is applicable. It only takes a spark. Last night, I sat on a panel…
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“Perfect 10” is now available in Insomnia Press, Issue 1
Awhile back, I found an open anthology looking for submissions based on Walt Whitman’s “I Sing the Body Electric.” I re-read the poem and started writing a story of obsession. It went much darker than I originally planned. Too dark, in fact, to submit to the anthology that originally inspired it. The story is called…
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Paris Review – The Art of Fiction No. 21, Ernest Hemingway
Paris Review – The Art of Fiction No. 21, Ernest Hemingway. I love looks at famous writers, especially those I admire or consider influences. This is a great, rare look at Hemingway’s workspace and a bit of his process. I love articles like this because they humanize literary giants that sometimes seem larger than life.…
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Punch the Boogey Man in the Throat, News, and Free Flash Fiction
Punch the Boogey Man in the Throat, News, and Free Flash FictionWriter’s Block is a controversial subject among writers. Some see it as about as real as the monster in your closet. Others swear they have seen the beast up close and personal. I don’t believe in writer’s block as anything more than a manifestation…
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Whispering and Shouting with Bradbury
“What are the best things and the worst things in your life, and when are you going to get around to whispering or shouting them?” – Ray Bradbury This morning, Ray Bradbury died. It is strange to write that sentence. It’s one of those things that never quite seemed possible. The writer that never grew…
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Minor Moments
It is human fate to have our dreams and to chase them throughout our lives. But dreams are fleet-footed. They tease our hope then slip through our fingers time and again. But, in the end, the chase and those minor moments of success are what will matter. I’ve been thinking a lot about dreams lately.…
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Teaching Turkeys to Fly and New Flash Fiction!
Teaching Turkeys to FlyEditing is one of the most time-consuming aspects of a writing career. See what I have to say about how I re-write at The Confabulator Cafe.
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Fundamentals of Beginning Screenwriting
Screenwriting can seem like an intimidating process. The format seems too technical, even the font is odd. Of course, the format and the font are functional, allowing a known pace relationship between screen and script. In general, one page of a screenplay will equal one minute of screen time. I’m not going to spend a…
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Diversify Your Writing Assets
Script Frenzy is coming up next month, giving me an excuse to dust off those screenwriting skills that haven’t seen the light of day for way too long. I’ve noticed that it is not nearly as popular as its NaNoWriMo sibling. I get it. Writing a book is every writer’s dream. It seems so easy…
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Fear, Itself
“The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown” – H.P. Lovecraft I recently read an article on Lit Reactor regarding the lack of fear of the old horror tropes in today’s entertainment. You can find the article here, if you are…