Tag: who Dares Wins

Warrior Writer: Deadly Sins of Writing—Sin #5 The Bog of Back-Story

Today’s blog will help you give life to great characters. How? By teaching you not to kill them.

Warrior Writer: Blood Lessons—Deadly Sins of Writing (Sin #4—P.O.V. Prostitution)

P.O.V. used properly can create entire worlds, and breathe life into characters. Used improperly, it can make your reader feel as if she is being held hostage on a Tilt-a-Whirl—not good.

Warrior Writer: Blood Lessons—Deadly Sins of Writing (1-3)

To believe college English constitutes proper schooling for commercial fiction is like saying Home Economics is proper training for a chef.

Warrior Writer: Blood Lesson Number One—Kill the Little Darlings, They’re Rigged!

William Faulkner is said to have advised writers to kill their “darlings,” those little bits of glitter a writer thinks are simply marvelous. To the reader lacking that maternal attitude, they are at best distracting, at worst a reason to stop reading. I sincerely believe these little darlings are like fluffy beds of leaves covering pungee pits of writing death. Be truthful. Are your “flowers” part of a garden or covering a grave? We put our craftiest work into buttressing our errors, so I would highly recommend taking a critical look at the favorite parts of your manuscript and then get real honest about why they’re there.

Warrior Writer—Blood Lesson Introduction

Blood Lessons come in many forms as you will read about in this blog. I will post lessons about writing, of course. But, most importantly, it will be my goal to post lessons of life, camaraderie, and character. As I stated earlier, I have been greatly blessed to be friends with caring, talented individuals. I always joke that Guantanamo Bay was using my first novel to break terrorists until the UN intervened (Water board me pleeeease! Just not another chapter of that BOOK!).