As I continue working through the outline of the first book of a planned trilogy, I started drafting out a few of the scenes that seemed the most relevant to the overall plot and character arcs. One of these scenes was a little more dialogue-heavy than I envisioned. Not a big deal, since it’s literally […]
The most important thing
I was talking about Stephen King’s Dark Tower series the other day and what I liked and disliked about it. (Okay, it was mostly what I disliked, but still…) Like a lot of King’s novels, the books in the Dark Tower series are often way too long, too slow, and full of too many pointless […]
Podcast Episode 33 – What makes a good ending?
In this episode of The Write Good Books Podcast, Jason and Scott look at how to end your short story or novel. What should an ending accomplish? What makes a good ending and what makes bad one? Click the link below to stream the episode. Also available at iTunes, Soundcloud, RSS and YouTube. About the […]
A brief history of ME and why I have this blog
A few years ago, I said “screw it,” and decided to finally take a stab at something I’ve wanted to do as long as I could remember. And that something was writing fiction. So one December a few years ago, at the urging of my lovely wife, I poured a glass of Clan MacGregor (the […]
Live Your Life, Don’t Merely Survive it.
I’ll start by divulging a little secret about being a dad for those of you out there who haven’t yet had the pleasure of becoming a parent: You’re continuously exhausted. Imagine waking up tired, and then staying tired all day, while knowing that sitting down for more than two or three minutes at a time […]
Ignore the Naysayers
I was driving to work a few days ago and found something interesting on one of the FM morning shows. In between the usual banter or “deep” discussions about current pop culture, one of the shows was having a discussion about a book by Seth Godin. Unfortunately, I’m not sure which book it was, but […]
Write What You Love: A Brief History of My Horror Fandom
Horror has been my favorite genre going back almost as far as I can remember. I have fond memories of being a kids and staying up late with my dad, falling asleep on the couch while we watched Elvira’s back & white classic monster movie of the week. I can barely remember what any of […]
Four Ways NOT Start Your Novel
It seems that every expert, agent, editor, publisher, and successful author agrees that you should never begin a novel with a prologue. I’ve personally had an agent tell me that she’ll reject a manuscript on the first word, if that word is prologue. So, yeah, there is a lot of hate out there for the […]