Dylan S. Hearn's Blog, page 8

How to turn a Complex Story into a Simple Synopsis

Originally posted on Drew Chial:
A lot things go into telling a simple story My least favorite type of writing has always been summarizing. Whether I was pitching a screenplay or a synopsis for a book, I got too concerned about what producers and publishers were looking for. I hated whatever I put on paper.…

This May Be My Last Post

  This may be my last post. At 19:00hrs BST I am being shipped to a disused US Airforce base here in the heart of Suffolk, to be chased by zombies as part of a friend’s birthday celebrations. I may not come out of it alive, but if I do, I’ll classify it as research, […]

6 Things You Need To Edit Your Book

Editing is my favourite part of writing. While I enjoy the free exploration and rush of creativity that comes with writing a first draft, it’s in the edit that I��really earn my��money. The edit can turn a promising idea into a great idea, can turn lumpen prose into gold. But in order to get the […]

Overcoming Procrastination

  I’ve listed these before but a little reminder never hurts. Here are my 10 top tips to overcome procrastination (warning: some of these are less serious than others). 1 Stop reading blogs I know, I shouldn’t have put this one first, but if this is the only tip��you read and you act upon it, […]

A Year of Paying It Forward

A year ago almost to the day��I had an epiphany. At the time I was spending an awful lot of effort encouraging people to buy my recently published book, Second Chance, but realised every book I’d bought myself up until that point was published by one of the major��publishers. I’d not bought, or read, an […]

Recommended Reads: Solace by Therin Knite

I had the pleasure of reading and recommending Othella by Therin Knite last year and enjoyed it so much I joined the author’s mailing list. Earlier this year,��Knite��offered her mailing list a free copy of her latest book, Solace, in return for an honest review.��It’s taken me a little while to get to it, but […]

New Kindle announced – Kindle Aroma

I don’t normally talk about e-reader technology but the latest announcement from Amazon has got me really excited. Called the Kindle Aroma, it’s been designed to address one of the reasons many people still prefer to read a book as opposed to the more convenient e-reader – its smell. The Kindle Aroma comes with a […]

7 ways to differentiate your novel

  Picture this. You’ve spent weeks, months, possibly years pulling together the first draft of your novel. Having let it sit for a month or so you finally read it through. You discover poorly written passages along with gems that make you wonder if you actually wrote��the words yourself. There are slow, dull passages that […]

Morality – a writer’s best friend

  One of the things I enjoy most about writing is exploring morality. At its most basic level, morality��is just a question of right and wrong. It’s a black and white issue. Take theft, for example. The definition of theft is: Theft The dishonest taking of property belonging to another person with the intention of […]

Recommended Reads: Claudia Must Die by T B Markinson

The Blurb Claudia doesn’t feel like herself anymore–she feels like prey. Her husband’s hired goons have stalked her all the way to Boston and will only stop their pursuit once she is dead. Divorce is not an option. Instead, she has stolen a bunch of her man’s money to disappear into another life. In order […]