Posts by: tim
A very brief post today to get a few links… well, linked.
First, going back to the conversation I had with David B. Coe, a gifted author and my friend, you can find the second installment of David’s insights over at sfnovelists.com. To catch up, here is the
Well, I’ve gone and let a couple of weeks pass without another blog entry. I must admit being a bit distracted with the shenanigans playing out in Wisconsin and — to a lesser amount of national coverage though potentially more disastrous — here in Michigan, as well. That is not the purpose of this blog […]
When it comes to long form fiction, I am a planner. I don’t like to write a cobblestone street into a scene without knowing who originally laid it and when. I want to see their permit, validate their license, and inspect their tools. I want to see the stones being quarried. Then, just for good […]
Those of you who have kept an eye on my Reading List know that I am working my way through Stephen King’s “On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft.” The book is part memoir, part love letter to his wife, and part father-child talk…
…if that father was the recovering alcoholic, back-from-the-front father with the […]
Hard to believe that all of January went by without a blog post, but when you have your wife’s birthday, rebuilding your website, and then this past week the “Blizzard of 2011,” things can get hectic. There is more on my brain to share, more posts already in the works, and more things I plan […]
I struggled with how to frame this post, because the thing tumbling around my brain comes from a very specific sort of sentence I have had the misfortune to find in several places recently. I could have easily labeled this post, “Sentences I Will (Almost) Never Write,” but, after a paragraph, I would have done […]
Recently, I heard a quote (possibly in the Dan Wells 7-point plot videos I posted about here, and which was probably paraphrased when I heard it, and which I am going to paraphrase) that said if you get to a point in your story where you don’t know what to do, have someone burst through […]
Earlier this year, at BYU’s “Life, the Universe, and Everything” writers’ symposium, Dan Wells gave a presentation on a system for structuring/scaffolding a plot in 7 points. Thankfully (because it was very good), someone put together the videos of that presentation along with some of the slides from Dan’s powerpoint file.
You need […]
Do you ever notice how a good introduction always ends with the name of the person who is being introduced? You get all of the information about the person before you hear their name. Why? Because the name is a trigger, a signpost to the audience that the introduction is done and it’s time to […]
