checking for comfort

💡The inimitable Dave Crenshaw had me on his podcast recently. Our conversation touched on finding an audience, focusing on what matters, and learning from the competition. Worth a listen: Apple Podcasts, Spotify. A few months ago, I stumbled on Professor Robert Boice's wonderful tips for writers on the

revision and the wild spark

The fin makes the film. That's because a good, cohesive story works like a legal argument. Even if you marshal a terrific defense for your client in Acts One and Two, whiff the closing statement, and an innocent person is going to prison. No spoilers here, but David

the note butler

Last week, I wrote about how I pace the reader's experience using a standard manuscript page format. However, I forgot to include my inspiration for that essay. In an interview about his process, director Christopher Nolan discussed the pacing problem in the context of screenwriting: I try to

page pacing

You ever read a new e-book for what feels like a good stretch and then get antsy and tap to see where you are? And that little progress indicator is all the way left, zero daylight between where you are and the beginning of the book? And you're,

book blocks

The popular subreddit Oddly Satisfying features videos that tickle my brain just so, from feats of fine penmanship to spectacles of spotlessness. My favorite genre of these posts usually goes by "unclogging a drainage pipe." For example. (There are many more.) What could satisfy more oddly than a

the riddle of reach

A young Albert Brooks wanted to be the "all-night guy" at an FM radio station in Long Beach, California. Early sixties; he's in high school. He goes in to interview with one of the disc jockeys at the station. "These disc jockeys," Brooks explained

the power of teamwork

Every significant project represents the combined efforts of a team. Forget your romantic notions of the Solitary Author in their Garret. Technically, anyone can write a book with a pen and some paper, but every great book is a joint effort, even if one name nearly always graces the spine.

suckers

To clarify a point from last week, the scavenger hunt story: It isn't just that the perceived size and significance of the competition is usually an illusion and should never discourage you from trying. That's part of it, but I was also trying to say that

the size of the fight in the dog

Post-dinner at a Catskills resort in the late 1980s, adults danced the night away in the Cousin Brucie Room or watched David Brenner tell jokes in the nightclub. The kids chose from two pastimes: dropping quarters on Tron or Star Wars in the arcade or enjoying group activities facilitated by