Stories of Suspense with a Sense of Humor
A few years ago, I was home in the afternoon on a weekday when I noticed a large man in the cul-de-sac. He happened to be black, but I like to think I’m not racist in that regard because I would take note of any stranger in my cul-de-sac regardless of race. For the record, … Read more
I have completed a draft of the “beat sheet” for the unnamed project I’m creating for Glass Cage Productions. It took the entire week I scheduled, and now I understand why so many of my other writing projects failed, or were mired in mediocrity. This was an arduous task. It surprised me because I thought … Read more
This is a wrapper for one of the neatest blog posts ever because it touches on the complexities of life, career, art, and death. I’m going to start sharing it here, but I’ll want all my friends and family to read it, eventually. Not only did this blog post tell a great story, hit the … Read more
When in doubt, make sure the character names are reasonable for the era, based on popularity of the birth year. The SSA provides listings by year, here: http://www.ssa.gov/cgi-bin/popularnames.cgi Very, very handy.
My brain really wrapped around the idea of a Beat Sheet when I read “Nail Your Novel”. It was an expansion of what I learned from Chris Soth’s mentorship and his Mini-Movie Method. I’ve blathered before about Truby’s Anatomy of Story, and it’s the combination of his Scene Weave exercise with the Beat Sheet that … Read more