From the monthly archives:

August 2008

Stalled Imagination?

Very recently I was faced with a dilemma. My inspiration engine had stalled. This rarely happens but when it does it can really throw a writer into a funk. I’ve always have a well-spring of material, be it blog posts, short story concepts, or book ideas. But every once in a while that trunk-full of [...]

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Playing the Name Game

Characters

I love coming up with character names. Especially main characters. I usually struggle with naming minor characters not because they are more difficult but because I don’t want to waste a good name on one. Now that sounded harsh didn’t it? Poor minor character…

So how do you do it? How does one create memorable [...]

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Eradicate the Self-Publishing Stigma

Inspiration

Is self-publishing a viable solution to get your work noticed? Just ask Jeremy Robinson. Jeremy had turned his self publishing venture into a successful writing career. And it was only in 2005 that Jeremy self published his novel The Didymus Contingencythrough Lulu.com. Lulu itself has gained respect in the POD world. POD stand for Publishing [...]

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To My Readers

General

Hello everyone. I will be performing some site maintenance this weekend. I’m actually changing from one web-hosting provider to another for reliability reasons. During the move there may be a few moments here and there where the site is inaccessible. Everything should be back to normal on Monday.

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Why Hide Behind a Pseudonym?

Writing Tips

Why do authors use pen names? Stephen King did as Richard Bachman. Dean Koontz dabbled (ordabbles) with pseudonyms. But why? Why not put your name behind every piece of work you put out there? There are a number of instances why you may consider doing so. Let’s take a look at 5 of them:

You have a [...]

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The Mind of a Literary Agent

Selling Your Work

I talk quite a bit about the importance of literary agents here at TTM. I’ve mentioned resources one can use to find them, and also how to approach them. But I’m sure the rest of it is a mystery. Once your novel is finished and polished to the point that you can’t look at in [...]

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Writing and the Long Distance Runner

Inspiration

Picture this… the open road, two legs, and miles to go. You start out strong. Your legs carrying you over the tarmac in the cool morning air. You feel awake, alive, and can envision the finish line hidden in the horizon. You cover a couple of miles without slowing down. And then… your lungs start [...]

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Blogging 101: My Biggest Blogging Mistake

Blogging

I’ve been blogging for awhile now and I have to say it can be quite addicting. Writing has always been my passion and one day I stumbled across blogging. It’s a great outlet and allows me to get my work out there. I can be myself (like here), or I can write under an assumed [...]

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What Makes a Short Story Short?

Interesting Tidbits

A while back a very respected writer corrected me regarding the length of a short story. I thought I would take a look at the other lengths as a sort of guideline for writers out there who may be curious. I’ve found that there can be many exceptions and interpretations on length but these numbers [...]

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The Curse of the Semi-Colon

Grammar & Punctuation

For years the semi-colon has haunted me. For some strange reason that I’ve never been able to fathom I just seem to get it wrong. I’m a fairly smart guy. I understand grammar, spelling, and punctuation. But when it comes to the semi-colon my brain locks up. It’s the Joker to my Batman.
So today I [...]

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