From Rick: This week, given that it’s Thanksgiving week, I’m going to give myself a little breathing room here while still giving you a couple of useful articles to read. One of the most challenging aspects of fiction writing to
Read moreFrom Rick: I apologize for not having posted here for two weeks. Last Monday my computer blew out its power supply. No files were lost, but I wasn’t able to access the post for last week in time. All is
Read moreFrom Rick: In PART-1, I talked about three major flaws a story can have: (1) The story fails to engage the reader (2) The characters fail to engage the reader (3) The story takes too long to become interesting (or
Read moreFrom Rick: What’s wrong with your story? Why are magazine editors rejecting your short stories? Are your novels getting mixed reviews (or no reviews)? In a series of two posts I’m going to offer some suggestions for things you can
Read more(from the Chicago Manual of Style) From Rick: I decided to continue from last time with more of those sticky punctuation questions I found in the Chicago Manual of Style’s online Q&A. To avoid confusion, I’m going to pick up
Read more(from the Chicago Manual of Style) From Rick: This past Saturday I gave a presentation to my local writers group on “Sticky and Tricky Points of Punctuation.” As a result of that presentation, one of the members sent me an
Read moreFrom Rick: Most of us recognize that the comma is perhaps the most difficult piece of punctuation to get right because it has so many rules that apply to it. I prefer to call them conventions instead of rules because
Read moreFrom Rick: From time to time I receive questions about scenes and scene breaks. We’ve all heard the term “scene” used, but we don’t often hear it defined. Here’s one concise definition I found online: “A scene is a section
Read moreFrom Rick: This week’s post will be a short one from my perspective, but it will provide you with some good reading material and hopefully some good insights. We’re over ten years into indie publishing, and it’s safe to say
Read moreFrom Rick: How often in novels have you read descriptions like the following? (1) Nancy hung her jacket and hat in the closet across from the front door, and placed her black, knitted gloves inside the pocket. She sat on
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