Sixteen months ago, I stopped in the middle of writing a new mystery-thriller. (I never stop in the middle of a project. I always finish.) But a friend had suggested an idea. (I rarely take ideas from friends, but overnight an additional key element popped into my head, out of nowhere.) I started writing immediately….
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Musing on the Muse
One of my interests is word origins, slang, jargon, idiom, and other esoteric corners of our language. Shortly after reading Ann Gordon’s article on Commanding the Muse, I was talking with my wife and mentioned something that I found amusing. That set my mind going. Was “amuse” related to “Muse?” Off to the Internet I…
Holy Holidays, Batman, they’re here!
If you’re like me, when the holidays hit, everything else goes off the rails. I don’t write. I don’t edit. I don’t think about deadlines and plot points or much of anything writerly. And I hate that. The holidays are hectic, but less so than they’ve been in the past when we hosted 44 people…
Rocky Mountain Writer #192
Dan Grant & Thirteen Across Dan Grant is the bestselling thriller writer of The Singularity Witness and Thirteen Across. He loves intriguing tales that weave science, medicine, technology, or history into the fabric of the drama. Dan is a licensed professional engineer with degrees from Northern Arizona University: a bachelor’s in electrical engineering and masters…
Come together, right now! How social mingling aids plot
To achieve satisfying character plots, our characters must grow (or devolve, depending on the genre) over the course of the novel. Good plotting challenges the author to show that change in a believable and compelling way. There’s a good reason for the long-standing advice to authors to avoid “Single Character On Stage” (SCOS). Without social…