Mickey Spillane, on an occasion when writing for other writers, wrote (I am paraphrasing) that the first chapter of your book sells this book and the last chapter sells your next book. Larry Brooks (novelist and writing coach) has made this point, too, in several of his blog posts [www.storyfix.com] with respect to endings. Now, I have recently experienced this first hand, but as a reader, not in my role as a writer. I was reading a hard-boiled novel. I don’t want to name it since this is not a review, but the book was a good read with an engaging plot and a well-developed main character. The book was written from the First Person Past point of view. The novel was so well done in some respects that even before I finished reading it I went online and ordered a second copy so I could mark-up that second copy (using Larry Brooks’ story structure milestones from his invaluable book STORY ENGINEERING) when I again read this novel, this time reading it from my perspective as a writer. Then I came upon the last full paragraph of the book. Not the last chapter, which worked fine, but the last full paragraph. In it, the author had the protagonist (who, remember, was telling the story in First Person Past POV) commit suicide! Ugh!! How can someone who kills himself in the last paragraph have spent the previous 263 pages telling us what had happened to him? I could have accepted this if the story had been written in First Person Present POV, but First Person Past? No way. That last paragraph immediately destroyed my suspension of disbelief and caused me to bellow: What??? I will still read the book again and will  put the book though Larry Brooks’ engineering analysis to see if the author hit his marks for the First Plot Point, Pinch Points, Mid-Point Milestone, etc., and other structural core competencies.  I suspect he did because the book worked for me -- up to the ending. But I will always have bad feelings about this book because, in the end (pun intended), it let me down. Yet, as a writer, I’m glad I had this experience. What better way for me to remember Spillane’s and Brooks’ admonitions about endings than with this jarring experience. ...

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It’s time I came out of the closet. I have been suffering with this secret for years. While society is more accepting of people who dare to follow their hearts and be different, there is still stigma attached to this secret I have been harboring. Once I reveal it, I know my parents will love me the same. My sister and brother, too. Even my friends. But there are narrow-minded, prejudiced and discriminatory people who will shun me. But still, I must be true to who I am. Therefore, I am officially coming out of the closet as a self-published author.             Did you think I was coming out of the closet as a lesbian? I already did that twenty years ago. It was and remains very natural for me to present myself to the world as a gay woman. But coming out as a self-published author has been more difficult.             Why is that so when the following are true:  &nb......

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“I cannot stop myself from clicking away from this website whenever I have to visit it.  Just looking at it makes me furious,” complained one of my clients.

My client was in the target market for the management consultancy – but their website raised her ire, not her interest.

No wonder.  This website had committed three of the deadliest design sins.  It was almost unreadable.

If you want people to actually read what you have Read more

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Lurking inside your vocabulary are a few words that can smother your writing in a layer of content-free fluff.

These innocent-looking words force your readers to peer through them to get to your meaning.

Let’s shine a bright light on these false friends so you can avoid their ensnarements.

 

 

Very

Surprised?  Surely “very” strengthens your point?  Surely, adding “very” is like underlining and bolding your key words?

No, it isn’t.

Usually, it is Read more

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*This is the second of four essays dealing with the death of a parent Dad was born on June 25, 1933. The second son of David and Shirley Lewis and younger brother to Hartley. He ran track excelling at the hundred meters. When his father went bankrupt he put himself through school and studied numbers. He went from being an accountant with an office in the basement of our Long Island home to running a multimillion-dollar hotel and apartment conglomeration. He went from being the son of a man who lost everything to a man who was valued at seven figures. My father's life has always been about numbers. It was numbers that introduced him to his wife, Beverly. They met when he was a treasurer and she was a banker. Together they would structure multimillion-dollar deals. One of the greatest introductions in the history of the world, Beverly stuck by his side to care for him, to struggle with him, to love him unconditionally. When Dad knew he would have to go from two days of dialysis ......

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Here are a few more oxymorons. I culled these from the pages of two newspapers I happen to read this past week: dull roar old news sweet agony loud whisper instant classic I am going to cease listing oxymorons for now. Perhaps, if there is interest, I will take this up again....

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These five oxymorons come from my reading last week of two online national news magazines: intense apathy original copy sweet sorrow grow smaller precious junk  Post your favorites here, too! ...

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More oxymorons...

Read More of Oxymorons – Five More ...

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Oxymorons Taken From Magazines...

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You keep staring at that blank screen.

You type a phrase, a sentence.  Then press delete.  The minutes, hours tick by.  Your deadline looms.

How can you find the inspiration, the ideas, the words that you need?

Put away the keyboard

Pick up a pen and begin writing by hand.    

“Handwriting activates massive regions of the brain that are involved in thinking, language and working memory,” says Virginia Berninger, a professor of educational Read more

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