Rick Taubold's Blog, page 7

Ignorance and stupidity

From Rick: A few posts back, I did one called “Greed” wherein I pointed you to the bit of amusement called “cockygate.” Here’s an update on how it all turned out, and you’ll see that the author who started it all came to realize that had she thought about and researched what she was trying […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry...

Novel openings revisited

From Rick: I’ve talked many times about the importance of your opening. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a novel or a short story. In today’s world where instant gratification seems to be more the rule of the day, if you don’t hook your readers right away, you risk losing readers before they’ve gotten very far. […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry...

Story structure models–PART 2

From Rick: In Part 1, I gave you some reference articles to read regarding various story structures. Before I get started, I want to make a couple of comments: (1) I do not use any of these methods directly when crafting a novel. (2) You don’t have to either. Why did I have you read […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry...

Story structure models–PART 1

From Rick: As promised last time, I’m going to be discussing story structure, and I will be doing it in two parts. If you didn’t read last week’s post, you probably should do so first. In this part, I’m simply going to refer you to four good articles on story structure and plotting. Yes, I’m […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry...

Some thoughts on outlining

From Rick: When it comes to writing, there are two basic approaches one can take: outlining, and writing by the seat of your pants, often called “pantsing.” I’ve written both ways, and I have known other writers who have done so. What prompted this post is the following article that makes some good points, but […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry...

Greed

From Rick: I was planning on a long post this week, and I started it, but I decided I needed more time to do it properly. It’s about plotting, but I have an excellent one on the same subject to follow it, so I figured it would be best to run those two back to […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry...

Good books, bad books, and personal taste

From Rick: Way back in the Stone Age (pre-Internet), book reviews were done mostly by literary professionals, or by those supposedly in a position to give educated opinions. Individual readers had very limited public voice in such things. These were the times when our teachers determined what we should read and why the chosen books […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry...

Style sheets revisited: how to avoid editing nightmares

From Rick: I apologize for not posting a blog last week (and for being late this week). Things got a little crazy time-wise, and they will continue to be so for the next couple of months at least. I have no lack of topics to write about, and new ones (like this one) keep popping […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry...

Setting intelligent MS word defaults for writers

From Rick: MS Word comes set with some really stupid defaults, at least for writers. While thy may seem good for the average person and for business, many of these defaults are counterproductive for writers, especially if you’re planning on self-publishing. When you open a new Word document, Word uses a file called Normal.dot, Normal.dotm, […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry...

Tips for self-editing your book

From Rick: You’ve probably heard it from many sources that writers should not edit their own books. Some of that advice comes from self-interested editors who want you to believe that in order to sell your their services. Some of it comes from editors offering sincere advice so you don’t make a huge mistake by […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry...