“Indoor” Fiction
Much of what passes among and between human beings happens — drum roll, please — indoors, within a home, an office building, or some other place people have put to a particular use. This is a factor of...
View ArticleDescription And The Telling Detail
Description is regarded by many fledgling writers as the greatest of fiction's challenges. Here are a few simple guidelines to keep it from intimidating you.
View ArticleThe Viewpoint Wars
Your choice of viewpoint mode will do just as much to determine the flavor of your story as your skill with words. Make sure you know your options, and which one suits you and your tale best.
View ArticleOn Thrillers
As an indie writer, I take an interest in other indies, their achievements, and the degree of success they experience. Many indies craft thrillers by preference. That might be because that’s the genre...
View ArticleFantastic Terminology
One of the great challenges in the depiction of worlds and phenomena distant from reality as we know it is mastering the art of the coinage. It’s not easy; take it from a writer who’s struggled with it...
View ArticleOn Reviews
The online book review has come to be a matter of some controversy. Many reviews are unmoored from any standard of evaluation, while some are plainly meant to wound. Here are some thoughts about...
View ArticleProsodies, Threnodies, And Maladies
The indie-writers movement is a thing of great internal variety. Indeed, the one thing we have in common is that we publish our own crap. However, our offerings do display some differences,...
View ArticleAudience Participation
These days, a writer who allows it will get plenty of feedback from his readers. I encourage it; it helps me to know what I’m doing badly, what I’m doing well, and what I could try that I haven’t...
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