Dueling percussionists! Enjoy today’s Fun Friday!
What they must have been like in their high school marching band pit:
Blog
Story Structure Part #3 – Three Act Structure
Welcome back to our series on story structure. As I’ve said before, this is only one of many options to choose from when it comes to plotting your stories. In the last two posts, I covered the inciting incident and Plot Point 1. I left poor Oliver attacked outside the restaurant with a head wound and a warning to “let the dead stay dead.” Someone doesn’t want the skull reconstructed. Oliver’s …
Building Partnerships: A Better Way to Navigate Publishing
In the ever-evolving landscape of the writing and publishing industry, aspiring authors often find themselves caught in the alluring web of building a platform. This platform, commonly characterized by high numbers of social-media engagement and followers, has become a coveted status symbol. But what if I told you that new authors can achieve far more by valuing partnerships over platforms? …
Title Attachment Disorder
Hopefully, when the mental health industrial complex gets around to updating the DSM-5, they will have a section on “Book Title Attachment Disorder.” Symptoms of B-TAD are refusal to listen to reasonable alternatives, applying divine inspiration to a title, and extreme anxiety when someone who titles books as a profession wants to change it. Of course, I am joking. I think. Likely some deeper …
R Is for Reserve Against Returns
Every traditionally published author needs to understand the principle of “Reserves Against Returns,” which is an integral part of publishing economics. It can reduce the amount of money an author receives in their royalty statement. It is usually a shock and elicits a phone call to their agent crying, “What happened to my money?” Did you realize that book publishing is the …
Fun Fridays – November 3, 2023
Sit back and let this performance wash over you. Turn the volume up. “Shall We Gather at the River.” Gorgeous. HT: Dick Malone
The Things I Say Most Often About Writing
I talk a lot about writing. As a writer, yes, but also as a literary agent and speaker at writers conferences. And, yes, sometimes, as the guy at church potlucks who is inept at small talk and sometimes starts sentences with, “Ever wonder what the first person to use the word moist was thinking?” Okay, so now you know a little too much about me. But in my strange mind and varied roles, I do often …
Books You Missed in School?
To be great writers, we must be avid readers. To be informed citizens of the world, we must read widely. As part of my independent, ongoing education, I’m reading a few titles my teachers didn’t assign. One is The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. Teachers mentioned the novel, but few readers in modern times seem to have read it. Initially published in 1905, Sinclair’s work exposed the …
Story Structure Part #2 – Three Act Structure
Welcome back to the continuation of story structure. For this series, I’m using the Three Act Structure. However, there are other models you can use. Just because I’m using this one doesn’t mean none of the others won’t work as well. However, the three-act structure is a tried-and-true method for crafting a story and is utilized by screenwriters and novelists alike. So, here we are in Act 1. Act 1 …
J Is for Just-in-Time
The economics of bookselling are complex and ever-changing. There is a method of inventory control called “Just-in-Time” (or JIT) that revolutionized both the retail and manufacturing industries. When I began as a bookseller, there was no such thing as computerized inventory, at least not in the Christian bookstore business. We used a method called “Stack ’em high and watch ’em fly.” Because “If …