Multitasking is a farce. Tests have shown that it decreases productivity and each task at hand is diminished. Pretty girls are SUPPOSED to cause guys to wreck their bicycles. I mean, c’mon – pretty girl, you know? I have been on the other, near-tragic side of such an event. I live I Florida so we […]
How do you know whose opinion to take about your writing? I have many critique partners. Some of them, I use all of their advice; others, I use almost none of it. (We recently discussed critique groups HERE) How do you decide – whether you’re looking at 10 different opinions or five or two – […]
I get story ideas everywhere, all the time. Doesn’t everyone? Don’t all writers? Please tell me I’m not an oddball! (Recently we discussed Successful Authors and how ofen they admit they don’t know what they’re dong, HERE.) I get ‘em all the time. Ideas… If they are interesting enough, I do a quick talk-to-text and […]
Which cover looks best to you? Words on top or no words? Be sure to make a comment and let us know! We’ll be moving forward with the one that gets the most votes! Thanks, Dan
I have mentioned on several occasions that I like to bring up my Twitter analytics, and look at what the most popular tweet was from the prior day. (We recently discussed why you need a Facebook Author page, HERE) It almost always has a picture, so armed with that information, I send the highest rated […]
A story with all the rules followed and no heart is just a jumble of words that no one will want to read. (We recently discussed finding your voice HERE) Still, we must communicate properly. It’s a balancing act. I write with abandon (that’s what “write drunk” means), and I don’t care if nobody but […]
What color are your characters? What race? “a tall black guy cooked at a large grill set on the sidewalk” I get that you want to show diversity but describing skin color like that is a slippery slope. From what I can see you’re only doing it with non-white characters… (That ridiculous observation is not […]
People are asking me, “When’s Poggibonsi coming out?” And also “What’s next?” Even my wife wants to know when the hell I’m putting out The Navigators… Okay, Poggibonsi is on chapter 15 of final revisions. There are 40 chapters, and I can do about 3 chapter revisions a day before fogging over. (Read the synopsis […]
Opportunity Knocks. Sometimes, late at night. Or early in the morning… I accidentally got a job writing! Now what? It happens more often that you’d think – twice in seven days to friends of mine – and now comes WRITER’S BLOCK. “I need something good, something stellar, something that will let these people know […]
How much detail do you include about stuff in your story, and where do you put it? Learn more about character descriptions HERE Usually, when we are new, we misplace the information and tell it at the wrong time, and in too much detail. A recent story I critiqued had a big, solid cop sitting […]
DAN ALATORRE