Beginnings: Get My Attention
“Once you get past the first four chapters, the book really picks up.” Has anyone ever told you that? I’ve heard that more than once, and I’ve even fallen for it a couple of times. I end up forcing myself to read a few pages before I realize I’m boring [...]
“Strong Language” in Fiction and Film
Every writer must decide what kind of words are appropriate for his writing. This rule applies particularly to those words euphemistically described as "strong language": common "cusswords" and the language of the gutter. As a former Infantry soldier and (worse yet) a graduate student, I guess I've heard them all. [...]
The Beginning: The Basics
Aside from the obvious, what is “the beginning”? What does it do? What purpose does it serve? I like to think of the beginning as the introduction. It’s where you introduce your setting, characters, and character goals/conflicts while capturing the reader’s attention and avoiding boring backstory. There’s no [...]
Starting Now: Blogging Basics
I started blogging eight years ago as a way to share information and pictures with my long distance family members. A couple of years after that I created another blog as a way to share some of my stories and songs. It was a couple of years after that before [...]
The Beginning: What Is It?
Before we can look at what makes a great novel beginning, we need to know what that means. Let’s start by identifying the main components of a novel. First, novels typically consist of three main parts: Beginning, Middle, and End. Between each section you have two more major components: the [...]