Usually I enter Nanowrimo at this time of year. The Natinal novel writing month helps writers learn to write persistently and consistently, giving you a daily target of about 1700 words per day to achieve a monthly goal of 50,000 words. Some of the times I enter Nanowrimo, I succeed in achieving the goal. Once […]
Now that the World Series is behind us (congrats to the Boston Red Sox – I didn’t root for you, but you’re a great team!), I can get back to work. Yesterday, I was chatting with one of my readers who asked me what comes after the Hot Dog Detective series. Although I plan on
I am an avid Rockies fan. As well as an avid Nuggets fan and Broncos fan. I even like the Avalanche. I suppose my choices in favorite teams is biased by some geographic biases, but I resist that accusation. I am also a believer that a team’s general ranking should be determined by competition. So
I have been asked where I get my ideas for my murder mysteries. The answer is never easy, since there are multiple sources for ideas. Most of the ideas come from my own imagination, where I contemplate how I would get rid of this person or that person, and what conditions would make this action
Finding Story Ideas Read More »
In the previous post, I described how I use Post-Its to work out the details of the plot, focusing on what MacFarland is doing, what others are doing, and key events that might affect the plot. The number of details I include in this phase varies from book to book, but some general guidelines apply.
Plotting a New Story – Part 3 Read More »
In the previous blog, I described the six threads I try to weave into each story. I also stated that I use the Blake Snyder plot outline to structure my novel. In this section, I will describe how I plot out the various chapters and scenes of a story. I will use the novel I
Plotting A New Story – Part 2 Read More »