I want to be the first to recommend the coronavirus as a holiday weight-loss plan. Since high school (I should have graduated in 1970, but I interrupted my educational career with a stint in the military) I have followed the Elvis Presley Holiday Diet Plan. That means I’ve gained only two pounds a year. Still,Continue reading “The COVID-19 Holiday Diet”
Author Archives: garybob309yahoocom
Personality Traits = Memorable Characters
Kira-Anne Pelican, PhD., who researched and wrote the book The Science of Writing Characters, explained at Script.com why the best fictional characters stick in our minds. Writers are constantly reminded: create complex heroes and villains. But how, exactly? How do we ensure our characters are satisfyingly complex? Should we just layer weird personality trait upon powerful personalityContinue reading “Personality Traits = Memorable Characters”
Don’t Tell the Reader
Why should you withhold information from the reader? So your readers will wonder. So your readers will guess. So your readers will engage in the story. In an April 2019 Writer’s Digest blog, Bryan Young highlighted the importance of withholding information until just the right time. The author of 20 books used examples from theContinue reading “Don’t Tell the Reader”
Chapter 20 Should I Stay or Should I Go?
The alarm rang at three A.M. I sat up and grabbed it. Decision Day. Should I leave? Biggy usually swooned into bed, and then lapsed into a coma. Once asleep, he was hard to wake. This morning, though, he rolled over. “S’up?” I stood and made up my bed. “Paper routes.” Maybe he heard somethingContinue reading “Chapter 20 Should I Stay or Should I Go?”
Chapter 19
My Face in His Mirror The Marines notified Mother a month after Daddy had cut off our allotments. A copy of her letter went to Daddy’s address. “I ditched him in California, so now he’s getting back at all of us,” she had said. She stored the letter in the hall closet, inside a BusterContinue reading “Chapter 19”
How do you know it’s cliché?
It sounds like it’s been done to death Let’s start with three admissions: everything is derivative; nothing is original; it’s all been done before. But that doesn’t mean clichés are acceptable. How do I avoid clichés? I don’t. Not in the first draft. I pour everything onto the page, fast as I can, even clichés.Continue reading “How do you know it’s cliché?”
Story Begins with Voice
Listen: “I sent one boy to the gas chamber at Huntsville.” No Country for Old Men, Cormac McCarthy. “They shoot the white girl first. With the rest they take their time.” Paradise, Toni Morrison. Do you hear the storyteller’s voice? Do you hear two different voices? McCarthy’s protagonist is a Texas sheriff. The old man in theContinue reading “Story Begins with Voice”
Chapter 18
The Devil and Curtis Pye One buyer showed up the next day. “Twenty. That’s all it’s worth.” “That’s not fair. It cost me three hundred and fifty dollars.” The man had a red Van Dyke goatee and a purple complexion. “It’s $175, plus a hundred to fix the wheel. Should I risk $275 on aContinue reading “Chapter 18”
Chapter 17
For Sale I watched TV after everyone left. For the thousandth time, Brutus grabbed Popeye by the top of his head. Popeye fists flailed like a windmill, but they never touched Brutus. That was me, but I couldn’t rely on a can of spinach to win my battles with Biggy. If I stayed in Oklahoma,Continue reading “Chapter 17”
Planning your way out of that big empty middle in the plot
Vogler’s Step 7: Approach to the Inmost Cave In the original Star Wars movie, Han Solo, Chewbacca and Luke Skywalker free Princess Leia. Storm troopers chase them through the Death Star, so they blast a hold in the bulkhead and jump. They fall into the garbage dump, and it starts compacting trash. That’s Step 7 of theContinue reading “Planning your way out of that big empty middle in the plot”
