I was asked to be a guest speaker at Comic-Con about adapting written works into video games. It was an incredible conference experience, with lots of energy, a standing-room-only crowd of inquisitive minds, great networking, and a boatload of shared information. I...
You don’t hear much about Americana literature. It’s a subgenre that fits well into other main genres. It’s what I write. I like to work on it the most in my script and manuscript consulting with studios and publishers. Americana literature, which has its roots in the...
I have never created or written a board game before except for little awkward things I drew on paper pre-adult. I’ve been asked to write one. Because I know about board games? No. Because I’m a writer and, throughout my career, I’ve been asked to write some crazy...
Writing is not about adding more subplots, making things complicated, adding a boatload of characters, or using some sort of gimmick. Writing – no matter what you’re writing – is about developing stories that resonate with readers, address the reader’s needs, and...
Success requires discipline, focus, and knowing your “why.” Without them, distractions can lead to downfall. Stay vigilant and keep your goals aligned with your values.
It's comforting to delude ourselves that our lives and careers should follow a steady upward trajectory, like a climbing line on a graph. But in reality, they resemble the unpredictable zigzag of the stock market, with its ups and downs. This fluctuation is not a sign...
When it finally hits us, we wonder why we didn’t realize it all along. You’ll laugh when I say it. But after you think about it, you’ll realize that this might be your reality. It is this: Great things don’t happen to you. You make great things happen. It sounds...
Why should we care about creativity? Because it's not just a concept, it's a tool that can give our lives meaning and expression. In the end, it is our life. Creativity is a broad term that we often overlook. It's not just about art or music, it's about the unique...
Crime fascinates us as much as it appalls us. From ancient murders to modern scandals, we are captivated by the criminal mind, the thrill of solving mysteries, and the legends that emerge from wrongdoing. Why do we romanticize some crimes while condemning others? And what does our fascination say about us as storytellers and readers?
Since I founded a conference based on literary genres (the #1 vote writers’ conference in the U.S. according to The Writer magazine), it might be fun to look at some of those genres. The first, with a conference named Killer Nashville International Writers’...