Things look bleak: the Big Bad is on the verge of conquering the world, and the heroes have gathered for one last stand. Just when it looks like all hope is lost, a horn sounds in the distance, and the cavalry arrive to save the day. Whether a ragtag bunch of minor characters, an army… Continue reading Trope Tuesday: The Cavalry
Tag: English 318
plot vs. PLOT and an interesting serial publishing idea
Back in English 318 at BYU, Brandon Sanderson used to tell us that there was a big difference between “little-p plot” and “big-p Plot.” The first applies mostly to chapters and scenes, which he said he could teach us. The second refers to the overall story structure, which he couldn’t teach in a classroom setting… Continue reading plot vs. PLOT and an interesting serial publishing idea
Trope Tuesday: Space pirates with Kindal Debenham
For today’s Trope Tuesday post, I thought it would be fun to bring on my friend Kindal Debenham to speak about one of the tropes in his new book, Wolfhound. Kindal and I were in the same writing group in college, and attended Brandon Sanderson’s English 318 class together. I just picked up a copy… Continue reading Trope Tuesday: Space pirates with Kindal Debenham
Trope Tuesday: Pet the Dog
The basic principle behind this trope is that when you want your readers to feel some kind of sympathy toward a character, have them pet a puppy / puppy equivalent. Often used to show who the good guy is, but can also be used to add depth to a villain. I first learned about this… Continue reading Trope Tuesday: Pet the Dog
Plans for Edenfall
I’m trying something a little different with Edenfall: I’m writing the first draft entirely in longhand. I first got the idea a couple of years ago, when I was camping in Moab. The beautiful landscape of southern Utah made me realize that I wanted to write Edenfall while experiencing that sort of connection with nature, and pen and paper seemed to… Continue reading Plans for Edenfall
More thoughts on indie publishing
Since my last post on indie publishing, I’ve been thinking a lot about this subject. I haven’t decided to take the plunge into self published ebooks yet, but I have decided to make some changes in my writing and my career strategy, in order to position myself more favorably if/when I choose to do so.… Continue reading More thoughts on indie publishing
Some thoughts on the future
I went to the first class of English 318 yesterday, and the lecture got me to thinking about my mid- to long-term future as a writer. Brandon spent most of the period organizing the class, which was made doubly difficult by the ridiculously small classroom size. I swear, bureaucracies exist only to make life difficult. … Continue reading Some thoughts on the future
Racing along
Ugh, why do I always stay up until 2am? And then I don’t get up until ten. Man, I need a job–either that, or more self discipline. Just a quick post before I hit the sack. I’m making excellent progress with the revision of Mercenary Savior, regularly hitting between 7k and 8k per day. Most… Continue reading Racing along
Wolverton interview and more
The interview with Dave Wolverton was a resounding success! We had a fascinating conversation about science fiction and the gospel, his latest book In The Company of Angels, self-publishing, the English 318 class at BYU and the profound impact it’s had on the LDS writing community, and much, much more. On that, I suppose I… Continue reading Wolverton interview and more
An interesting concept
Last night, I was hanging out with a friend of mine and a couple of girls in the apartment complex where I currently live. We got to talking about books, and one of the girls said something really interesting: Every book needs to have one thing that the main character knows that the reader doesn’t… Continue reading An interesting concept