This past week I had an in-depth discussion with my friend and author Maurice Broaddus. Maurice is an interesting writer because he’s up front about his faith and infuses it into his writing. I, on the other hand, am pretty private when it comes to my beliefs; they aren’t part of my writer’s platform. Even […]
Tag: Books & Stories
The One Thing That Cripples Writers Is…
…fear. Over the years, I’ve talked to many people to hear their stories and find out what makes them tick. The people closest to me know that, in many ways, I’m the type of writer that studies human nature. The one thing that most writers have in common is this: fear. “I’m not good enough […]
Semantics, Word Choice and Personality
Lately, I’ve been obsessing about semantics, how we choose our words, and what effect a personality type has on both. Take self-promotion just as an example. To tell an introvert to get out there and “Sell yourself!” might make someone feel uncomfortable. Turn that around for a second and say something like, “Help someone know more about you.” Same thing. Different words.
No, this idea isn’t new. It’s a different take on the old adage, “Doesn’t matter what you say, just how you say it.” There’s two sides to the application of this powerful idea. There’s the writing side, where we have to make decisions about the words we use. There’s also the semantic side, where we may (or may not) respond to someone else’s words.
To Kill a Story
Some writers refer to their unpublishable work as “trunk novels” or “trunk stories.” For my broken stories, I kill them and then send them to my virtual morgue, which is a folder on my computer.
So what qualifies as a dying story in my book? Find out by reading this post.
My New Series of Horror Movie Articles on Crackle.com
While every day is Halloween for me, this time of year brings out the best in a lot of free television and movie websites like Crackle.com. This week, I delivered a series of articles about horror movies for Crackle.com from a fan’s perspective. Today, you can read about the classic horror film 13 Ghosts, which […]