Category Archives: Other Writing

Exclamation Point Points

After thirty years of my wife insisting, I am now reading Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean Auel. And it’s a wondrous thing. For a first novel, Auel created a rich world based on sound (at the time) scientific speculation, bent the rules within acceptable parameters, expertly manipulated plot twists and turns for maximum [...]

Ghostwriters in Disguise, Part I

So in a stray moment today, Tom Clancy came to mind. It has been years since his last novel, and in the light of Jean Auel emerging with the lastest in her Earth’s Children series, I wondered if Clancy might be up to something. Turns out, he is. A couple minutes of Googling came up [...]

The Chapter Chapter

Yesterday an e-mail came from a friend who is making her way through writing her first novel. She told me that while checking up on her chapter lengths, she found the following numbers: Chapter 1 – 5200Chapter 2 – 3600Chapter 3 – 3600Chapter 4 – 1870Chapter 5 – 2200 She said she was torn between [...]

Harry Left Behind

From a link at the excellent Faith*In*Fiction is this story from Slate about the parallels between Harry Potter and the Left Behind series. The article is well done, but seeing as how I’ve relied on two movies for my dose of Harry, and a radio series and standing in the bookstore thumbing through copies for [...]

Pre-Editing

Two writing sessions today, both interrupted by assorted family business. Richard and K are about to break camp now, and are listening to a popular evangelist’s sermon on the radio. It’s going to serve as a springboard for character development, as it starts a conversation between them about their beliefs. So the pre-break half of [...]

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