Notes and Lessons Learned on the Business of Writing
Continuing from Part I – Everyone knows that writing best-sellers is hard – the case study of Dan Brown reminds us of the opportunity to learn what we can from others’ success. Does that mean we like Dan Brown? Of course not. Jerry Seinfeld found George Costanza to be foolish, Jerry still appreciated George’s talents…
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If you’re in the writing game you know: Writing Best-Sellers is Hard. Let’s use Dan Brown as a case study to understand how he wrote the right book at the right time to be supported by the right people and see what we can learn from his experience. Let’s be clear – I hate Dan…
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Well friends, I haven’t talked about Kevin Conroy but you know my feelings on Batman: The Animated Series. What’s the best way to say ‘thank you’ to a guy you never met for a childhood you never had? I don’t know the answer to that, so I purposefully held off on talking about Kevin Conroy….
Remember when I said ‘we must be connected?‘ It turns out, Carl Sagan agrees with me – we are all connected – you can hear him say so in this new Symphony of Science video. Take a look: Now, if you’re wondering if the artist behind this video is the same guy who did the…
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One of the questions I’m anticipating with Mike.Sierra.Echo is “Why does Mike go to New Mexico?” After all, I live in Eugene, on the West Coast. My last book took place in San Francisco – a traditionally futuristic scifi locale – what’s the deal with putting the characters in Santa Fe? New Mexico has a…
I don’t know about you but my life has been filled with ‘writing rules’ – turns out that there are no wrong answers when it comes to writing dialogue. Want to know why? Check out this Redditor’s explanation as to why there is no good way to follow “the rules” for writing dialogue: “The problem,” he…
I’m working on a new microfiction over on Reddit in response to this /r/writingprompt thread: [WP] When humanity entered the galactic stage nobody noticed. No ceremonious greeting, no “humanity is special” in any way, shape or form. Humanity is so unremarkable that most didn’t even notice that a new species joined the community. Humanity has…
I don’t feel I can write a blog post like ‘Losing the Plot: Writers Will Destroy Themselves With AI’ without a few housekeeping items first, so let me get that out of the way. Number one, I think AI can be a powerful tool to make scifi better used in the context. Number two, I…
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Wow, I had forgotten how good this movie was. A chance ticket to see Star Trek II – The Wrath of Khan in theaters leads to another great moment in storytelling. Let’s talk one of the greatest Star Trek movies of all time, what made it great, and what that teaches as storytellers. Look, no…
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I’m working out and exercising more, and it’s taught me something. When it comes to writing and workouts: Do it every day. There’s a legitimate connection between human creativity and physical fitness, but I’m not talking about that. Your creativity needs to be exercised every day, too. So if you’re in need of some writing…
