A number of fiction critics have pointed out the sorry endings to many of Stephen King’s novels. They admit these novels were exciting, interesting, intriguing, and mysterious—until the end. Some complain that these endings don’t ring true—that they’re unimaginative, outlandish, unlikely—even irritating. Perhaps this occurs because King is a pantser, and when he reaches the…
When I wrote corporate technical and user manuals, I never found myself staring at a blank page, waiting for inspiration. I wasn’t concerned about word count and never suffered writer’s block. After receiving the specs from programmers and engineers, I knew what I needed to write about. The beauty of compiling user and tech manuals…
While scrolling through Twitter a couple of years ago, I stopped to read an interesting post by an Australian songwriter. He called himself SpaceMarch, and at the time he had 252,000 Twitter followers (nice). Other than working with words, I didn’t know how much I’d have in common with a guy who writes lyrics for…
For thirteen years our at-large writing chapter has held regular critique and review sessions. Since most of the chapter’s members live a good distance from each other, our critique sessions are held online. By popular vote, we have elected to use email to share our submissions with the assigned participants in our critique session group….
Despite the fact that my mother taught me how to type when I was quite young, to this day I still compose fiction stories by hand, preferably with a soft lead pencil or fountain pen. These instruments glide across numerous pages without causing hand cramps. At write ins, I’ve watched fellow writers typing away on…