Blog Archives: September 2017

The greatest technical issue I’ve come across recently on Critique Circle, is that many people do not know how to punctuate dialogue. It’s a new problem, and is widespread. If you want to be a writer, though, it’s basic to the craft, and there is no flexibility. And it’s quite simple. A section of dialogue consists of up to three elements. A gesture and/or expression; the quote; and a dialogue tag. Some may have all three, some may have only one. Let’s consider them each. Dialogue Tags in General A dialogue tag is the “he said,” or “she ...

I like writing space opera. Space opera (for me) requires interstellar space travel. Any meaningful interstellar space travel requires that the characters be able to travel between points in the universe that are hundreds of millions or even billions of light years apart in the course of several hours. That means they must go faster than the speed of light. A lot faster. Hundreds of millions or even billions of times faster. But I read an article recently on NPR where it discussed being realistic in science fiction. That is, the ...

I'm pleased to announce that my latest novel, Printed Woman, is now available on Amazon in Kindle and Paperback formats

This is not a book review because I could not get through the book. It’s more of an analysis of what I did read of the book from the point of view of a writer. This book is the sequel to “Catch 22,” the iconic anti-war novel. “Closing Time” follows the same characters many years later. For example, Yossarian is 68 years old.   I like Heller’s writing in general, but I had a few issues with this book, and from these a few writing-related lessons can be learned. Old Men and no meaningful Women If the is book were written today, it ...

I love to beat on story structure, partially because it fascinates me, and partially because I think it’s one of the most important things a writer must get right. Whether you plan your story in every detail or write by the seat of your pants, in the end, the story must have this structure. Movies are a great way to see it in action because they follow it religiously, and it’s quicker than a novel. It’s true that a novel does not have to follow the structure as precisely as a movie does, but the closer it is to it, the better.   The ...