Recently I read a book where the flow of the story was chopped off in the jump from chapter one to chapter two. I’ve also read books where the flow was interrupted from one sentence to the next, or…| Shannon Donnelly's Fresh Ink
I’m excited to announce that I’m writing a new book for O’Reilly:Follow the Money: Understanding the Financial Architecture of Software. This is a project that’s been quietl…| zwischenzugs
A great deal of my professional life involves writing, so the prospect of copyedits on a book manuscript conjures a special kind of fear and loathing. I’m also a writing instructor, of both fiction…| The Patron Saint of Superheroes
I’ve been reading some contest entries of late, and one thing that struck me is that I don’t see the point of the story emerging right away to hook me into the story. Theme is the point…| Shannon Donnelly's Fresh Ink
This month I want to discuss villains again. Not all stories contain a villain but for those that do, the villain is the most important star of the story. Why do I say that? Because without the vil…| JMJ Williamson
I’m giving a talk via Zoom for Orange County Romance Writers on November 9 on Pacing Tips and that has had me thinking about story pacing, and what I see so very often in writing contests. It…| Shannon Donnelly's Fresh Ink
I was wondering this month about what to choose as subject for this blog, so I had a wander about the internet to see what successful writers said on the craft of writing. But first you must try to…| JMJ Williamson
Steve and I get asked a lot about how we use Scrivener to write our books. And it all starts with the research and outlining phases. I’m going to focus mainly on how I use Scrivener to outline a non-fiction book, but if you want to see how Steve uses Scrivener to outline his novels, […]| Author Basics