Filtering words? What’s that? Michael R. Emmert, on the Scribophile blog, says, “To picture what filtering is, picture sea sand being poured through a screen into a bucket. The screen removes any larger objects as the sand is poured. Filtering eliminates pieces, and leaves an altered product. In fiction, the concept of filtering is similar:…
Category: Blog
Don’t Cry Over Spilled Milk (or, When Your Publisher Goes Out of Business)
A few weeks ago, as some writers might know, Midnight Ink decided to close its doors after its spring/summer 2019 releases. Why should you care? Well, for a couple of reasons. First, that means people like editor Terri Bischoff, awesome friend of RMFW and an overall great person, is out of a job. I have no doubt…
Giving Thanks
As the year winds down, I like to take more than a couple of moments to consider what I’m thankful for. During our annual Thanksgiving feast, my family has a tradition of going around the table and saying what we’re grateful for. There’s the usual – family, friends, success, “glad it wasn’t worse” stuff. Mostly…
What All Heroes Need
In the past, I’ve talked in depth about what villains need to bring your story to life. Today we’re gonna talk about the heroes, or protagonists, of your story. The people your reader should identify the most with. The people the story is really about. (Now before we begin, let me say I am not…
My Acknowledgments Suck
Yep, they do. I mean, I put the “ack” in acknowledgments. Come on, where’s the RMFW Colorado Gold three-hour Master Class on how to write your acknowledgments? That is, how to keep track of all the people who helped you out? All these classes and blogs on writing craft and plot and character and voice…