KillZone Blog

The Journal: A New Nonfiction Book Is Coming

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Anyone can figure out * Are you one * Topic: A New Nonfiction Book Is Coming * I had a good day writing * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “One thing that apparently still has the power to infuriate people, though, is how many spaces should be used after a period at the end of an English sentence.” from an article sent to me by a friend via email “I’ve gotten lots of advice in my novel writing career. Some of it good. Much of it stupid. It just took … Read more

The Journal: A Mind-Control Technique

In today’s Journal * Topic: A Mind-Control Technique * Help Keep Me in Cigars * Be Wary * The Numbers Note: Today’s post is around twice as long as usual, but it’s very informative. Topic: A Mind-Control Technique (and Why to Use It) You’ve heard it here at least a few times: When you allow your POV character (not yourself) to describe a setting, it’s a good idea to let the character use all five of his or her physical senses: sight, smell, sound, touch, and taste. I also recommend letting the POV character use his emotional senses: dread, elation, … Read more

The Journal: A Bestseller Goes Indie (and Why)

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * See the rest * I wrote nothing * The Numbers Quote of the Day “Which brings us to the huge burning question: what will the publisher do for us that will be worth giving up 3/4 of our money forever? A publisher would have to make a very compelling argument and that argument can’t be just ‘We will give you a big advance.’ Here is why the advance argument falls flat on its face. “Let’s say we get an advance of $100,000 for a book price $4.99. The book sells 30,000 … Read more

The Journal: Decisions, Decisions

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * I started writing * Decisions, decisions… * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “Traditional publishing and selling physical books are, in the 21st century, narrow-margin operations without a lot of room for error or financial difficulties.” The Passive Guy “[E]ven fools can often recognize a death spiral.” The Passive Guy, talking about the book business, but easily relatable to other endeavors as well “Leonard, we know you’re great, we just don’t know if you’re any good.” CBS Records President and CEO Walter Yetnikoff to Leonard Cohen, as reported by Joe Hartlaub … Read more

The Journal: A Run-on Sentence? Nope.

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * An alternate dictionary * A Little Fun * A Run-on Sentence? Nope. * No writing yesterday * The Numbers Quote of the Day “Noir is urban gothic—hopeless. Hardboiled is gritty and unsentimental.” Garry Rodgers For maybe the past 40 years or so, I’ve been slowly compiling an alternate dictionary of sorts as a mental exercise, something similar to The Devil’s Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce. Despite its name, Bierce’s dictionary has nothing to do with Satan, by the way. If you’re not familiar with it, you can find a free copy at … Read more

The Journal: What the Journal Is Not

In today’s Journal * What the Journal is not * Why I didn’t post yesterday * The Numbers This Journal is not a political blog and it will never become a political blog. Nor will I ever ambush you with political commentary here. You come here expecting to read my ramblings about writing fiction and, to a lesser degree, nonfiction and poetry and my personal life as a writer. And that’s what you should find when you get here. Why I didn’t post yesterday Some will notice I didn’t post at all yesterday. There are two reasons for that: One, … Read more

The Journal: What We Keep

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * There are links to several * Topic: What We Keep * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “Hahahahahaha!! What??? Me and you grumpy?” anonymous, a friend responding to yesterday’s Journal post “I have no trouble accepting my own flaws. It’s other people who have a problem with that.” Wes Crowley There are links to several very good articles in today’s “Of Interest” section. I hope you’ll take the time to click through and visit some of them. Topic: What We Keep For close to a year after I learned the technique … Read more

The Journal: Dialogue Tag vs. Brief Descriptive Narrative

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * An extremely good post link * I lost a subscriber on the 12th * The purpose behind the Journal * Trigger Alert (joking) * I expect a good day * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “Be ruthless about protecting writing days…. Some people do not seem to grasp that I still have to sit down in peace and write the books, apparently believing that they pop up like mushrooms without my connivance.” J.K. Rowling (via The Passive Voice) “Jenny told me that the eye passes over ‘said’ and ‘asked’ and … Read more

The Journal: An Opportunity to Learn

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * An Opportunity to Learn * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “[A]void using an abundance of clunky “ly” words.” Lee Lofland “The best crime stories are not about how cops work on cases. They’re about how cases work on cops.” Joseph Wambaugh An Opportunity to Learn See “Five Tips For Writing to a Large Audience (48 minute video)” at https://mystorydoctor.com/get-the-five-tips-for-writing-to-a-large-audience/. I suggest listening to this free video by David Farland. For one thing, it will help with good ways to think about your IP, not only the stories themselves but parts … Read more

The Journal: Gripes of the Day

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Gripes of the Day * The Numbers Quote of the Day “[I]f an artist of any kind sits around waiting for inspiration, he’ll have a very small body of work. Inspiration usually comes during work, rather than before it.” Madeline L’Engle Gripes of the Day Gripe 1 “Writing may be art, but publishing, when all is said and done, comes down to dollars.” Nicholas Sparks Okay, first, duh. Do people never grow weary of stating an obvious fact as if no one’s ever said it before? Second and more importantly, does … Read more