Bryan Young's Blog, page 19

Writer's Rules Revisited #2

Last week, I opened up a new series on the rules of writing based on my original "50 Rules and Tips for Writers." It was very popular and people really seemed to like it, so I'll certainly be keeping it up.



You can read Part 1 here.



The three rules we'll be talking about are primarily for screenwriters. As much prose writing as I've done, I've probably done as much screenwriting. (The next episode of Confessions of an Independent Filmmaker will be highlighting a lot of the misadventures I h...

Update!

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Over the weekend, I had the distinct pleasure of being a guest at the very first Salt City Steam Fest in Salt Lake City. It was a steampunk gathering where costumers and genre fans got together to learn about a lot of different things, show off their costumes, and have fun. 



I was able to do a writing panel with Howard Tayler from Schlock Mercenary. Howard and I have been circling each other professionally in time and space for many years, but this was the first time we'd actually, o...

Interview: Star Wars Book Report

I had the honor of being a guest on the Star Wars Book Report podcast to talk about writing, Star Wars, and Operation: Montauk.



The first guest on the show is Tom Kane, the voice of Yoda on The Clone Wars. I've interviewed Tom a few times myself and he's always a fascinating guy to listen to. Then they get into my interview.







You can check out their website here.



During the interview, we talked a lot about the difference in writing for different mediums: documentary, feature films, journa...

Writer's Rules Revisited #1

A while back I put down a list of 50+ rules for writing that I have been collecting over the years. You can read that post here. I've collected even more than this since then, but someone asked me why I hadn't expanded them into something larger.



Rules and one sentence missives are good, but essays on the subject might be more helpful.



I want to go through these one or two at a time at greater length until we've gone through all of them and we've added more to the list. Maybe when we're don...

Disconnecting as a writer...

Writing is time consuming.



It takes incredible amounts of focus, creativity, drive, and time.



In a world that demands we're connected digitally to it at every second, it can be hard to find that oasis of time and space that John Cleese talked so brilliantly about. This connection is a problem I have personally as a writer and often it leads to a lack of productivity and often some manner of insomnia. Clearly, I'm still productive, though, and I've had to come up with ways to fight digital d...

UPDATE: San Diego Comic-Con

Good news, everyone!



I will, in fact, be manning a table at San Diego Comic-Con.



Maxwell Alexander Drake has two tables and a booth at the show this year and we have worked out a deal for me to take up some of one of those tables in the Artist Alley, where I will be  hawking my literary wares. While there are no promises that I'll be able to make it there for Preview Night, I will try my hardest. I will also be at the convention Thursday, Friday, and most of Saturday.



Aside from the p...

San Diego Comic-Con and a writing update

I've been attending Comic-Con for a long time now. This will be my 14th of the last 16 that I've been to. I've covered the last five or so as press and have had a great time interviewing some very cool people. From Kevin Smith to Kevin Conroy and the cast of The Clone Wars and comics superstars across the board. It gets more and more stressful every year and I was honestly planning on skipping this year and taking a well deserved break to do some writing.



But I was invited to participate on...

What makes a writer?

What makes a writer?



That's a question I deal with quite a bit. Am I a writer?



I think the answer is actually easy. I write, therefore I'm a writer. I make a substantial portion of my living as a writer, and the portion is even higher if you count the writing I do for video projects at the day job.



I published my first novel by myself, as an independent publisher. My second novel was put out under the "Silence in the Library" imprint. I followed the model that I took with the comics route...

Contest and more reviews!

Big Shiny Robot! is giving away two signed copies of Operation: Montauk.



To enter, go over there for details!



Another review of Operation: Montauk came out as well. This one from Nanci over at The Toschee Station.  They compared it to the original Star Wars and also had this to say about it:

Operation: Montauk is a short, fast read, with exciting action sequences and interesting characters.  

Operation: Montauk is a fun read and I give it 3.5 out of 5 stars....

Reviews, Conventions, and Signings...

As many of you were aware, I've been doing lots of conventions and signings in the last few weeks to promote the release of Operation: Montauk.



First was Origins Game Fair, where I was a guest of The Library. The Library is a collection of writers handpicked by Jean Rabe who teach writing seminars, participate in their anthology project, and sell books. It's filled with luminaries such as Mike Stackpole, Aaron Allston, Timothy Zahn, Gregory A. Wilson, Jennifer Brozek, Steve Saus, Don Bingle,...