Randy Ingermanson still helps me when I least expect it. I found his website a few years ago and read some great writing tutorials concerning the ‘Snowflake Method’ and ‘Writing The Perfect Scene’. They helped me get started and solidified a foundation from which I grew. After a few years of writing every morning in the dark (before the kids get up), I felt good about writing scenes. Somehow I managed good conflict in practically every one of them and in each one I also found a way to end on a good dilemma. I patted myself on the back feeling pretty strong about myself and my writing. But eventually I knew I had to take it to another level. I revisited Randy’s site and reread the page concerning ‘Writing The Perfect Scene’. Ha. Somehow I found that all that clever writing I did could fit easily within the proposed ideas he set forth. Even though I hadn’t visited his site in a while, I apparently incorporated his philosophy into my writing and it certainly made it better.
It reminds me of an old Bruce Lee quote about simplicity: “Before I studied the art, a punch to me was just like a punch, a kick just like a kick. After I learned the art, a punch was no longer a punch, a kick no longer a kick. Now that I’ve understood the art, a punch is just like a punch, a kick just like a kick. ” At some point you start using them as tools and you’re not bound by the thought of the structure of everything you have to do to accomplish something that should be simple.
I’m hoping, with Randy’s helpful website, that a scene is just a scene and that I’m on my way to mastering the art.
Check out Randy’s page:
Writing The Perfect Scene
Archive for the ‘Writing’ Category
Randy Ingermanson
Posted: September 25, 2014 in WritingTags: AdvancedFictionWriting.com, Randy Ingermanson, The Snowflake Method, Writing Fiction For Dummies
David Baldacci
Posted: September 23, 2014 in WritingTags: David Baldacci, New York City, ThrillerFest
Okay. Enough already. I have to talk about the guy who really started it for me. You see I was sketching out something in the lines of a techno-thriller and struggling quite a bit. I hadn’t read a good author in who knows when, and then the exact kind of thriller genre book I needed came from a familiar source, my mom. She said to try this guy, and she handed me a paperback of David Baldacci’s First Family. I was completely sucked in within the first few pages. To date I’ve read most everything he’s written.
What he did for me was make me realize you could write with a very easy and relaxed style, not so laden with descriptions that you wear our your adjective source and still paint a vivid picture and tell a thrilling story. Besides, he made it look easy. Of course, I realized since then that it is not easy to create such wonderful pieces of work, but I endeavor to do so.
Equally impressive is his starting The Wish You Well Foundation which is focused on supporting family literacy. It’s a great cause.
We had hoped to see him at ThrillerFest in NY this past year, but he could not make it. Crossing fingers that he makes it next year.
Check him out:
David Baldacci
The Wish You Well Foundation
James Rollins and Grant Blackwood
Posted: September 22, 2014 in WritingTags: Grant Blackwood, James Rollins, The Kill Switch, ThrillerFest
I managed to find another techno-thriller writer I like, James Rollins. At ThrillerFest X I was able to sit and talk with Grant Blackwood, who co-authored The Kill Switch with James. Grant also taught one of the classes. Very interesting guy. James was not there this past year, but I’m hoping to see him there soon. Grant was kind enough to inscribe the inside of their latest book. I only just started it and can tell it’s going to be good.
Check them out:
James Rollins
Grant Blackwood
David Morrell
Posted: September 19, 2014 in WritingTags: David Morrell, rambo, sylvester stallone, ThrillerFest
ThrillerFest is an amazing conference concerning all things in the thriller genre. One of the best things they started this year was an immersive class called Master CraftFest. This is a class where you spend the entire day with about ten other budding authors and a teacher that has done more things in the genre than you can imagine.
I was lucky enough to be placed in David (creator of Rambo, played by Sylvester Stallone) Morrell’s class. Aside from a short lunch, we ground out ten hours of workshop time. In this class the instructors critique your first ten pages (you submit weeks before the class) and they’re all discussed intimately. One of my greatest takeaways was David’s picking at the ‘trombone effect’ as he calls it. It is finding those pesky, hidden past tense words like ‘had’ in your sentences. When you realize they jerk the ready in and out of present tense, you can easily picture a trombone sliding back and forth. As he tells it, you’re telling a flashback at this point. When you look back at your work and see a flashback within a flashback, you realize how ineffective the work is. It’s okay to put a flashback in your work – but as he reminded us, ‘you better have a damn good reason to do so’.
What a fantastic writing coach and mentor. He freely hands out some base writing philosophies on his website:
David on Writing
Catherine Coulter has written 70 novels, with 66 of them hitting the New York Times bestsellers list. Originally known for her historical romances, she started writing suspense thrillers, and with great success. I met Catherine in an elevator at ThrillerFest 9 in New York. She stood quietly in the back, a handful of something or others clung to her chest and she had sunglasses or dark glasses on. I didn’t recognize her at first. But couldn’t help but think this chic woman was important. Then she reached out her hand and introduced herself. As she exited the elevator I couldn’t help but count through all the FBI suspense titles I’d recently seen of hers in the bookstore.
Later in the conference, I had the chance to attend one of her lectures. Before it started she went around and introduced herself to each and every attendee. Magnificent. She did everything with a smile and grace. I hadn’t previously read anything of hers, but quickly sought out Bombshell. It was excellent.
During her class, she introduced me as the man she had sex with her in the elevator earlier. Of course it was all in fun, but she has a grand sense of humor. After that, she certainly had a fan for life.
Check her out: Catherine Coulter
I had read about Margie Lawson on the Internet. Randy Ingermanson is a big fan. Most anyone he pointed me towards turned out to be beneficial. So I kept an eye out for her. I had heard about Margie from other writers too. Then one day, I’m at the Florida Writers Association Conference in Orlando, FL (where I live) and who turns out to be teaching a class? Margie! In one 50 minutes lecture, I took as many notes as I could and committed as much to memory as possible. There was gold in her words. Her ideas about visceral actions sticks with me today. She has many other online writing courses you can choose from, and I plan on digesting all of them. Her teaching applies to many genre’s, not just thrillers. I would love to hear from anyone else who have attended one of her lectures and tell me what they thought.
Check it out: Margie Lawson
Writing Fiction
Posted: September 16, 2014 in WritingTags: AdvancedFictionWriting.com, Randy Ingermanson, The Snowflake Method, Writing Fiction For Dummies
More specifically, writing fiction for dummies – It’s for smart people too. Randy Ingermanson is someone who really helped me build a foundation with which to write from. Reading from his website advancedfictionwriting.com, I was amazed at how simple and yet how strong his base concepts were. I spent entirely too much time trying to gulp down my own book in one massive, complex theory. Ultimately, I bought his book Writing Fiction For Dummies and have passed it on to other people who need to not only learn how to start, but how to refine what they have.
Check it out: Writing Fiction For Dummies
What? Registration for ThrillerFest is already open. I can’t wait to pick and choose what I’m going to do next year. But one thing is for certain, I want to volunteer and help the cause that’s strengthening the thriller genre. All the authors donate their time to talk about the craft of writing and share stories about what works for them. If you’re at all interested in deepening your knowledge of how to write in this genre, then this is certainly the place to be.
Check it out: ThrillerFest
Robert Dugoni
Posted: August 26, 2014 in WritingTags: David Morrell, New York City, Robert Dugoni, ThrillerFest, Todd Gerber
Another fantastic new acquaintance – Robert Dugoni. And silly me forgot to get a selfie with him. 😦 I was chatting with a friend of mine (Todd Gerber) in David Morrell’s MasterClass session at ThrillerFest, and he told me he couldn’t wait to sit in Bob’s session. I was intrigued. Knowing that ThrillerFest was fat with fantastic authors helping/teaching and sharing their knowledge, I looked him up. A New York Times Bestselling author. Okay. Let’s try it. – I was amazed. He was so clear and charismatic. Everything he said made sense to me. Light bulbs and connections in my brain were firing and flashing like mad. It was so helpful I ran up to my room and worked on my own book for the next hour. I felt like I made marked improvements with the new found knowledge. The good news is he was teaching a second class at ThrillerFest.
The lucky dozen – I think there were only 12 of us sitting there at 9 o’clock on a Friday night in New York City, ingesting a wonderful load of ideas and hints. Bob even ran over the time allotted because he cares about writing and teaching. It was soooo worth it.
I had to grab one of his books and found he was every bit of the writer as he was the teacher. His new book comes out Nov. 1st. Check him out:
Robert Dugoni
Uggh. After looking at all my fantastic ThrillerFest pics, I found I didn’t have one of my newest and most enthusiastic friends – Joanna Penn. But I just had to give her a ‘shout out’. Not only is she a great thriller writer (with an interesting dark side), she also shares her publishing, writing and marketing expertise with a smile. We shared a ten hour marathon class with super writer/teacher David Morrell and I’ve been learning from her ever since. I purchased her Best Selling book ‘How to Market a Book’ and confess, it’s the one and only book I’ve read cover to cover (pun coming) that was an e-book.
Joseph "Peppi" Vecchio 