Storytellers Unplugged

“No, my lord! If we don’t let him go now, how will the enemy know when, where, and how to attack us?”

Even though life doesn’t always seem to proceed with anything resembling logic, fiction generally has to. If it doesn’t, the wires start to show, and it becomes obvious that you’re just making it [...]

“Begin with the end in mind…”

Sound advice, that. Sound strategy. The rationale being that if you don’t know where you’re going, how in the name of Zeus can you be sure you’ll actually get there? Where, exactly? The end of an as-yet-unfinished novel comes to mind, for starters, but that’s just one entry on a [...]

Kevin Bacon playing "6 Degrees Of Moral Repugnance"

It happens to all of us: A work is rejected or critically thrashed on the grounds that the main character isn’t sympathetic enough. Maybe the entire disagreeable herd of them aren’t sympathetic enough.

Of course it’s a highly subjective complaint, and maybe even misses the mark for what [...]

"What do you mean, why? ANYBODY could’ve sent flowers."

Predictability seems to be about the worst charge that can be leveled at a storyteller. After plagiarism, that is. Plagiarism and predictability, the big two mortal sins.

It doesn’t matter what you’re writing. It can be the total antithesis of the kinds of tales that, by default, [...]

Sometimes the most intimidating aspect of tackling a long project, like a novel, isn’t any one thing. It’s the whole thing. The entire monolithic beast. It’s a mountain, you’re at the bottom, and to plant your flag at the top means more climbing than you can possibly imagine.

The sight of it, the thought [...]

“What — those little rumors? Do I really look capable of a thing like that?”

You’ve heard it all your life: You only get one chance to make a first impression. True enough in the flesh, but then again, there’s whatever people might have heard about you before they have a chance to shake your [...]