I don’t know how often someone has told me about their idea for a book, and I’ve told them they should write it only to have the next line out of their mouth be, “I would if I had the talent.” Talented writers love to say it is about talent, but I’ve known some...
This essay is crazy talk. Yesterday was the perfect day, a snapshot of what every day could be like in my ideal world. We all know that life interferes. That’s what life does. I used to think that these sorts of days, the perfect ones, were anomalies, but over the...
I’m interviewing writer Thomas Perry in a few days, and I thought it might be fun to return to his first book, The Butcher’s Boy, his first novel and the winner of the Edgar Award that year. It’s easy to see why it separated itself from the competition. It exemplifies...
If you don’t define your brand, others will do it for you. In today’s world, writers aren’t just authors; they are brands. Learn how to take control of your identity, craft a clear message, and build a brand that reflects your true creative purpose.
In my years of teaching at universities and conferences, lecturing on podcasts, and conducting instructional panels and presentations, I have encountered the phrase “Show, Don’t Tell” as one of the most basic yet often misunderstood phrases and pieces of advice and...
How Hadestown Uses Timeless Storytelling to Captivate and Inspire Writers As I left the performance of the Broadway touring production of Hadestown at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center (TPAC), it left me thinking about the storytelling techniques that made it such...
Writing Is More Than Just Art—It’s a Business People are attracted to writing because of numerous things: crafting and exploring great characters, shaping and developing new or familiar worlds freshly visited, and telling stories with compelling plots, subplots, and...
Why A Trip to the Moon Still Matters for Writers In graduate film school, I first watched Georges Méliès’s short 1902 French film A Trip to the Moon (Le Voyage dans la Lune). At the time, I didn’t really appreciate all it had to offer. It’s a classic, for sure, often...
As I repeatedly mention, we writers all want to satisfy the end-user, the reader. When we get invited to write a blog for someone else’s website, we have another person to please: the website owner. As a writer, I believe I am in the customer service business, so when...
You’ve heard the phrase: it’s not what you know; it’s who you know. I’m not sure I’d agree with it. Knowing “what” is crucial for anyone to do their craft, vocation, profession, or job. However, you can have the best skills or offer the best product in the world, and...