Long-Term Relationships With Your Characters

One of the things authors decide when they sit down to write is how long and drawn out their relationship will be with particular characters.  There are short stories, novellas, novels, and then – at the far end of the spectrum, you find trilogies and the continuing series.  Each of these involves a level of [...]

The Truth in Consequences

(I apologize for posting this late. I literally forgot Gerard sent it to me because he posted it in the body of an e-mail, and when I got to looking and didn’t see an attached file, I … well, anyway…here it is…sorry it’s late – DNW)

by Gerard Houarner

In an effort to be at say [...]

Cliche Guilt – What If I just Like To Read This Stuff?

Gerard Houarner

Early in February, a thread on the Shocklines board exploded for a few hours as the subject apparently touched a nerve among many readers: people were asked to list five storyline cliches that really irritated them. Our fellow unplugged storyteller Jim Moore started the thread in part as research for his own [...]

The Five Percent Solution

by Gerard Houarner

By a happy coincidence, this one follows up Elizabeth’s great essay from a few days ago, though takes a different track (which is scary, because you never really want to wander too far off a trail blazed by Ms Massie, but I’m brave, or perhaps a little too much like [...]