If you're going to spend time writing and creating, I think it's good to take an honest look at what you do well and what you don't. Many of those things are subjective - is there a scientific way to break down good character creation? Probably. Do I know what it is? No. Do I know it when I see it? Sometimes. Let me start with something I don't do well: Proper character maturity.
Now there isn't a universal way any age group acts. I have raised 2 and one half boys (one is still a teen) and
I find characters fascinating. If the story isn't that great, sometimes a neat character can really lift the whole thing up - or sometimes poor characters can drag down a neat story idea. When I write I can spend weeks thinking of the story and how a character may react in a given circumstance - sometimes coming up with scenes that would be very deep into the story and then having to write all the supporting scenes to get to that point.
Character building can be done tons of ways, but I usu
Readers are a wide-ranging bunch and enjoy tons of different content. Some will read certain genres far more than any other - romance, sci-fi or only want happy ending stories. As a writer I can't possibly fit into all categories, nor should I. Rather than write something I wouldn't enjoy as a reader, I tend to write the strange things that flit across my consciousness and just hope someone else enjoys them too - that's the easy way. Then there's the complicated way, but to get to that I think I
There comes a point where you might look at your work and wonder how good or bad it is. You may wonder which mistakes you're making, be they grammatical or creative. Sometimes an editor or beta reader helps you catch those things, but what if it's what you intended? How much do our intentions, in the front of our mind of unconsciously, play into the final product? I'd imagine the answer is different for different writers, so I can only give you my view.
One of the things I do is make
This has been on my mind off and on for a while. There are writers of all stripes and there is an entire spectrum of ways to offer criticism and a matching spectrum of ways to deal with receiving criticism. Probably the first one many writers get has to do with punctuation. I remember well the first time someone said 'neat story, but you need an editor.' My first thought? Screw you! Which I guess brings me to my first point - being polite.
Every single work of mine has issues and I k
Yesterday I made a post on my message board and my site Facebook page because, dear reader, I'm angry with you. The numbers I am about to share, specifically, don't apply to GA—but you have just to look at the number of views for a story versus the number of reviews, as that seems to be the standard for contact on this site.
You know, reader, I'm a reasonably busy guy. I have a full time job, husband and all the bills that go with a home and a life. I have two kids full time with more than t
A month or so ago (time is elastic when you age) someone in chat asked me why I write the subjects I do, especially with respect to teen characters. At the time I gave a standard answer which more or less boiled down to when I was in school I didn't get to have those kinds of relationships and now I can experience them.
While that is true, it may not be the whole thing so I've been thinking about that question. My mother asked me that, or something similar once, because I had so many coming
We're in a little bit of a tail spin over here.
In March of this year we were asked if we'd consider adopting our foster child as his mother wasn't doing what she needed to. We said yes and we've been laying the groundwork since then. So you understand, this mother has had 10 years with this child. She is a meth addict who will not cooperate with treatment to get sober. She repeatedly breaks rules, something she taught her son by example, by calling our home, showing up at his school repeate
I was on my Facebook page and got a friend request from some person my husband might know—our 'friends' in common are people my husband knows. I usually put these folks right on 'acquaintance' because, frankly, we usually have nothing in common and if their crap comes up in my feed, I comment. That usually does it.
I noticed someone else in my feed, non-relation, but I clicked on them and looked at one of their photos. Then, I noticed someone who commented looked like a cute kid and, since I
I know I've been a little quiet the last few weeks, and I wanted to address it with everyone - along with some thanks. I do appreciate your patience and kind words.
With respect to serial stories: I will try to post Friday. If I cannot, there should be a large Sunday post. Due to travel on Thanksgiving, I will not be posting on Thursday.
Sanitaria Springs: The next story up is 'Isn't it Bromantic? by Ryan Bartlet. Many of these stories were written out of order, and then we would post th
When a friend or other loved on leaves us behind it leaves a mark. I know that when my father passed away in 2003, it was expected - he'd had cancer for more than a year by then and when he came home with hospice, we knew our time with him was limited. That was very hard on him and on us, emotionally, but we got the chance to say goodbye and he knew how valued and loved he was.
I made a friend almost a year ago who wasn't always very nice. He could be, frankly, a jerk. I know why he was the
You don't have to be a football fan to read this, or to understand it because it isn't really about football. What it's about is our priorities, what we allow as a society.
I can't get it out of my head how horribly dogs died at the hands of Michael Vick and, for my part, I think he's a monster. Many people defend him with the notion that 'he did his time and he's trying to do better, raising awareness, etc'. Well and good but, yes, he's a monster. He didn't make a one time mistake, he merci
I frequently have many thoughts running around in my head at one time. Other times, there is nothing going on, so I guess it balances. Lately, I've had a kid in my brain.
I mentioned him earlier, and let me give you some detail. Due to privacy laws, I will call him Adam, for the same of bringing humanity to him as opposed to calling him Child A or something. Adam is ten years old and is quite dimunitive. You might think, upon meeting him, that he is much younger than his biological age. You'
There has always been some inequality of the sexes - even tonight my son was teasing a teammate that he'd been beaten by a girl and I had to explain to him why that wasn't the way to tease. But, as was discussed in the recent Sanitaria Springs story, Asher, there exists a disconnect between boys and underage sex and girls - specifically when their partner is of legal age.
Firstly, sex in these circumstances is, in my opinion, wrong. It isn't an equal relationship, the adult has the power, th
I had a conversation recently where someone was frustrated about that pizza place in Indiana who got all those donations. Now there is a few different ways to look at this and mine was - how could people, presumably religious folks who supported the religious views of the shop owners (as opposed to just bigots) support this when there were so many other positive places that money could be used for? Feeding the homeless? Shelters, either human or animal? Unfortunately, the outrage doesn't always
As I have friends/minions here that I do not have at my own site, there were some things that I like to share with readers both from my stories and from my personal life. Recently I had posted that we'd gone to Philadelphia and had reason to be optimistic. I decided that upbeat item would be my first blog post here - and I hope to hear before tomorrow, when I start calling and emailing the worker in earnest.
From my site post, dated March 31:
So as some of you know, I recently took an ov
