Date registered: April 23, 2012
Feb 28
Recently a read a scifi novel and couldn’t keep up with the characters throughout the story. Having an interesting and memorable character name is important, but that’s not enough. I just hate it when characters are names things like Bill, Bob, Bert, Bull, Barren, Berry, Bo, Blue, and Brad. It may seem cute to the …
Jan 16
A CORPSE IN CANYON By Jack R. Stanley “Her feet may be in town, but her ass — and the rest of her is in the county,” said Canyon Police Chief Haskell Maddox. “Obviously she was shot in the city — she just fell into the county,” responded Sheriff’s Patrol Deputy Savanna Breeze. “That means …
Sep 17
I give great advice in this blog — but I just don’t always follow it. Take for instance my most recent novel, I hit a “writer’s block” moment — a place where I simply didn’t know what came next. What I did know was what happened after the missing piece. I’ve written before that when …
Sep 16
The importance of good or great casting can’t be overstated. This is not only true in both stage and screen productions, but it absolutely applies to the writing process. When it comes to the reality of able actors, it is often possible to switch performers on stage for a long running stage production — but …
Mar 28
Used to be that writers like James Fenimore Cooper, Charles Dickens and others would take pages to say, “It’s a fall day” or “…in foggy London town…” or “it was a day just like today.” And characters had to be described in such detail that we’d recognize them if we ever saw them walking down …
Nov 26
The risqué ol’ joke in my title was too easy to miss. But the truth is still there — especially when it comes to modern fiction. As they say in Hollywood, “Less is more.” In geometry they say, “The shortest distance between two points is a straight line.” In comedy the cleverest joke is the …
Nov 22
Believe it or not, not everyone is going to like what you write. Get used to it — and move on. Hey, there are people who don’t like Shakespeare. At the turn of the 20th century, wit and playwright George Bernard Shaw despised the bard. French writer Voltaire of the 1820s and ‘30s thought Shakespeare …
Nov 18
Some writers spend years finding their voices, finding their points of view in their writing. Too often it’s the voice of successful, classical writers English literature courses key in on. New writers who spend years trying to emulate the voices of their favorite writer are squandering their time and effort. You already have a voice …
Nov 14
I’m now six chapters into my new novel and I’ve discovered I’m not a two thousand words-a-day writer. I’ve done two thousand a day, but not on this story and not so far. It was my goal, but I’ve not hit it one single day, yet. Oh, well — it’s not the end of the …
Nov 04
Tonight I begin my next novel. Having just finished MURDER IN MULESHOE, a mystery, I’m moving back to a Western this time and writing the second in my Texas Ranger Chronicles. The first, finished in 2013, was GUNS ALONG THE RIO — in which my main character, a 17 year old young man, joins the …
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