I’m going to admit it: I fell hard for Pixar. It was the original Toy Story that punched me in the heart first; the nostalgia and sweet characters, blended with a lifelike style of animation I’d never seen before. I then dove headfirst into their collection of short movies, many of which I showed over… Read more »
I posted previously about how a writing friend and I made a script from a short story for a Halloween film contest. Today’s post is a little more in-depth on the process of taking a short story and turning it into a film. Our short film ultimately took second place in the contest. You can… Read more »
For many writers, beginnings are easy. An image floats in your head for months or an idea marinates for years during the commute to your day job or a line comes fully formed into your mind while cooking dinner. When you finally sit down to honor this image, idea, or line, the story pours out…. Read more »
It was six months into the COVID pandemic that I made one of the biggest career decisions of my life. I had spent over 20 years in the tech industry, mostly as a founder, or early employee, at Silicon Valley tech startups. I had just decided to shut down my latest venture and was feeling… Read more »
Fiction isn’t journalism, of course. You don’t need to cram all five Ws (who, what, when, where, and why) into the opening paragraph of your novel or short story. Still, if you’re writing mainstream fiction, your readers ought to be able to establish some bearings early in the narrative. You need to set the scene. … Read more »
Marketing is essential for any writer who wants to be successful. Without effective promotion of your services and connectedness with your current and potential clients, it’ll be challenging to maintain an overflowing pipeline of work. There are many approaches to take regarding marketing, but social media marketing presents a uniquely powerful opportunity to promote your… Read more »
In my new book, The Linchpin Writer: Crafting Your Novel’s Key Moments, I talk about how movies can sabotage a novelists’ writing skills. Novelists can definitely learn storytelling techniques from movies, but you shouldn’t rely on movies too much. After all, they are a different storytelling medium, and books can do things that movies can’t… Read more »
Writing is hard. It requires a unique balance of mind, heart, soul, time, resources, and bravery to write a book and work to get it published. That means not only do you have to write the dang book, but to be able to get your butt in the seat to write it. You have to… Read more »
The popularity of novels with an art world theme continues across the decades, with new bestsellers like The Art Forger and The Goldfinch being released every year. For readers who enjoy learning about art and history while being engaged with a good story, the art world appeals as the perfect setting. What separates excellent narratives… Read more »
Let’s face it. It’s hard to care about a story if you don’t care about the characters. Reading fiction is almost always an act of empathy: for a brief time, we get to live another life. Therefore, above all else, writing compelling fiction requires empathy, too—lots of it. It’s one thing to know facts about… Read more »
