Mike, police procedurals, draws the short straw, so our critique group acts out his story to find flaws. I hit the john, load my Beretta, ready to raise the stakes. Tessa, horror (writing and life!), joins me enthusiastically. Lona is new, yet, ironically, historical. She’ll acquiesce. Ali, noir, is a guest, so a mystery. Replaces […]
Act I We were in love. Just hadn’t admitted it yet. I arrived on time—that is, early—for her party. Toured her apartment. Her highlight: Chekhov’s gun on the mantle. Certificate of authenticity on letterhead. Act II Twice, we made eye contact across the crowded space. Grinned. In the kitchen, I brushed against her. Power died […]
Excise weak adverbs; insert strong verbs. Did you know the road to hell is paved with adverbs? Stephen King told us that. If you’re ready to punch up your writing, culling out adverbs is a good place to start. (Just like the passive voice, there’s a time and place for adverbs, but generally you can […]
Let’s begin our agent Janet Reid flash retrospective. This was the first entry I ever wrote for one of her contests. For the uninitiated, the way they worked was she spotted us 5 words that must be in the story and we had no more than 100 words to tell the tale. Six-Word Story by […]
Why “Show, Don’t Tell” is important for a writer The only thing you can’t do to your reader is bore them. They’ll be okay getting confused, assuming you clear things up soon enough. They’ll be fine looking up words they don’t know. They’ll be grateful when you throw them a twist they hadn’t anticipated. But […]
Personal example for this week’s tip. When your characters speak, use the attribution “said.” A kind agent who asked to read my manuscript told me I had a character who “uttered” when she should have “said.” The agent was right. “Said” becomes invisible in your story, but “uttered” or anything else calls attention to itself. […]
Writing Rules for you to break. Here’s something I’ve been doing over the past year, and the results have been fantastic. I took a break from working on a novel and cobbled together some short stories. My goal was to finish at least one per month. Attainable and measurable. At the same time, I tried […]
Frain settles into his home office. Flips on his laptop. Searches for his website. After an hour, his wife wanders in. “What are you doing?” “I’m making a comeback.” “Don’t you have to be gone first to make a comeback?” The author looks up from his laptop. “Haven’t you noticed—” “I can help with that […]
Murder in Size 6 Frain lay on the ground in a pool of his own blood. A six-inch heel, showing only five-and-a-half inches, jutted out from his right eye. One witness to the murder. “I only heard it,” the woman said. “Never saw anything.” Detective Crowley said, “What did you hear?” “Mrs. Frain’s threat. I […]
The Boss releases his autobiography; I release my favorites Reading time: 2 1/2 minutes — With the release of Born To Run, Springsteen’s memoir, it’s fitting that we come out with my top 9 songs from the Boss. I haven’t read the autobiography yet, but I adore the fact that he spent seven years […]
JD Frain 