Bryan Thomas Schmidt's Blog, page 12

On events in El Paso

I lived in El Paso for a while and part of it a mile from the site of the mass shooting yesterday. As of this moment, I still have not heard the status of a… More

Panel: The Future As I See It (San Diego Comic Con 50, 2019)

This is the panel I moderated on Friday of Comic Con 50 in San Diego with authors discussing how they write and envision the future in their works. Panelists:Gini Koch – National bestselling Author, Alien… More

Flooding at home

Today, after all night rains, I took my dogs down to see if the dog park was passable. We couldn’t even make it around the park for flooding and downtown was a complete mess. Here’s… More

Write Tip: 5 Basic Plot Elements All Novels Must Have

The following is an excerpt from my book How To Write A Novel: The Fundamentals of Fiction, Chapter 3: In Writing the Breakout Novel, Donald Maass identifies five basic plot elements that all plots must… More

First Hand Account: Big Bang Taping Live, The D&D Vortex (Season 12, episode 16)

So someone asked me what it’s like a while ago to attend a tv taping and I never got around to posting. Here’s what BIG BANG was like. You show up early, even noon for… More

My San Diego Comic Con 2019 In Pictures

Here are photos from July 17-21, 2019 when I attended the 50th annual San Diego Comic Con:

Write Tip: Developing A Novel’s Theme

The following is an excerpt from my book How To Write A Novel: The Fundamentals of Fiction, Chapter 1: “If a powerful problem is a novel’s spine,” Donald Maass writes in The Breakout Novel, “then… More

The Philosophy of This Blog

When I started this blog, my goal was to help and entertain people with interesting experiences and posts based on my experience and knowledge. I also made a commitment to post twice weekly, and soon… More

Write Tip: How To Structure A Scene

The following is an excerpt from my book How To Write A Novel: The Fundamentals of Fiction, Chapter 3: The scene is the basic building block of dramatic structure for any story. If written correctly,… More

Write Tip: Four Act Structure

The following is an excerpt from my book How To Write A Novel: The Fundamentals of Fiction, Chapter 2: The four-act structure is a more recent rethinking of three-act structure. Proponents claim it is much… More