This information, revised and expanded, is also available in the Dunlith Hill Writing Guides.
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The Responsible Writer
The Magic of Context
Meaningful Contexts
Good Writing Seems Effortless
Excellence and Elitism
Expression vs. Experience
"But They Broke the Rules"
Self-conscious of Your Audience
Wendig on Six Reasons to Stop Writing
The Effectiveness of Author Blogging and the Gartner Hype Cycle
There are No Writers
Why Our Writing is Better than Other People's
Calling Ourselves Writers
Business
Finding Your Audience
Publishers are Risk Aggregators
Agents are Business Partners, not Leprechauns
Ambitious and Strategic
Promotion Should be Understood as an Expression of Gratitude
The Great Chain of Rejection
The Insidious Circle of Acceptance
No one's Publishing Good Books Anymore: True and False
One Client per 4000 Queries
Novels and Novelty: The Relentless Quest for the New
Writing is a Exercise in Extremely Delayed Gratification
Publishing is not a System, it's a Market
How to Follow Trends
What does it Mean to "Break In?"
Libraries: How Ancient Tree-killers did Free
Gatekeepers and Advocates
Sympathy for Agents
The Sky is Falling (Changes in the Publishing Industry)
eBook Pricing and Value
Gurdon's "Darkness Too Visible:" A Call for Variety
On the Difference Between Commerce and Culture in the Bookstore
Publishing is Slow - Why not Have Fun?
ePublishing and Internet Footprints
Crystal Ball: Demand for New Books will Fall
The Bookstore vs. the Library in the Cloud
Kinds of Writers and Their Advice
Marketing Before vs. After the Fact
On the Spread of the No-Response-Means-No Policy Among Agents
Finding an Audience
Compelling or enticing readers
Compelling or enticing promotion
Does your Audience Expect an Artist or an Entertainer?
Demystifying Genre
Authentic Web Presence
Rules
Mark Twain's Ten Rules for Writing
Kurt Vonnegut's Eight Rules for Writing
Some of Nathan Bransford's Commandments for Happy Writers
Sol Stein on the Job of the Writer
Writing vs. Web Presence: the 90/10 Rule
Story Theory
Story as Model
Positive and Negative Story Spaces
Story Drivers: Vivid, Necessary, Purposeful
Story is Conflict: Need, Impediment, Action, Resolution
The Best Stories are Always Edgy
Story is about Cause and Effect
Story Attributes Significance
Seducing Readers Deeper into the Story
Avoid Roller Coaster Stories
Mind the Gap
Story Maps
Roller Coaster Stories Redux: Engaging Your Audience
Storytelling on British and American Television
Politics and Narrative Conflict
Practice
Writing is like Loading 16 Tons
Writing is Hard Work
Quiet your Inner Editor
Flow: Balancing Right and Left Brains
On the Second Book Funk
Finding Time/Making Time
Small Steps and Milestones
Making Time: Writing is a Habit
Preparation
How much do you have to read before you write?
Background and Foreground Writing
How much world-building is enough?
Discovery vs. Outline Writing: Different Tools for Different Jobs
What's it About? A Wikipedia Entry for Your Book
Writing Intentionally
What Should You Know Before You Write a Novel?
Gardeners (aka Discovery Writers) and Under-planning
Architects and Over-planning
Story Bibles
The Single Most Important Author Quality: Confidence
"Revise Without Compromise"
On the Advice to, "Kill your Darlings"
Voice and Writing Every Day
Long Form
The Art of the Long Form
Trajectory
Tension and Release
Variation
Rhythm
Emphasis
Motif
Theme
Series
Fractals
Persistence of Vision
The Obligation of Transformation
Strong Finish
Retrospective
Strategy
Moral High-ground
Clever References
First Person
The Rule of Two
Three Act Story Structure
Learning Curves
Organic Conflict
Revelations Rehabilitate the Middle
The Home Improvement Guide to Story Structure
Tactics
Barely Flooded: Say what you mean and mean what you say
Get the Details Right
Linguistic Spices
Adding More to Simplify the Story
Writing Action Sequences
A Minimal Speech Tag Framework
Adverbs in Speech Tags
Scenes that Move the Plot Forward
Janette Rallison on Point-of-View
Showing Involves Specificity
Balancing Action and Information
Verisimilitude
The "Ring of Truth" in Fiction
Getting Dystopian Societies Right
Getting Economies Right
Getting Science Right
Evolution and World Building
Monocultures: Just Say No
Romance: R E S P E C T
Romance: Each Partner Completes the Other
Romance: The Journey to Together
Quest and Romance: Oil and Water?
Natural Romance: Observations
Natural Romance: A Time and a Place
Natural Romance: Working Together
Characters
The Arc of Character Reactions
Clever Characters
Flawed = Strong, Stupid = Weak
Antagonists and the Source of Conflict
Metaphors Should Flow from Character
Does Conflict Mean that Someone's Mean?
The Second Rule of Two: Meaningful Characters have Two Choices
Character Behavior and the Maslow Hierarchy of Needs
What Makes a Strong Female Character?
Plot and Character: Grand Unification Theory
Fixing Unlikeable Characters
Non-character Antagonists and Conflict
Conflict: Inner, Personal, and Universal
Internal Conflict: Sine Qua Non
Fit and Finish
Overused Words
How to Understand Criticism
Revisions: Mixing and Enrichment
Revisions: Nice and Slow
Revisions on a Kindle
Soap Box
Overused settings: Medievaloid Tropes
Middle Grade Bullies? Just say No!
On the Writer's "Journey" and "Ultimate Goal of Publication"
Is literary expression constrained by readers who want likable characters?
Extraordinary Characterization and the Danger of Muddled Metaphors
Zen
Forest and Trees
Caring and not Caring
We are Our Own Protagonists
Just Right is Hard
Unique in Context
Mindful Writing
Fairness and your Monkey Brain
How to Hear Success Stories
Taking it Personally
On Authors Peculiar Susceptibility to Hooks
Writing Life
Finding Balance
It Doesn't Matter if you're Published. It only Matters that you're Read
Don't Beat Yourself Up. The Publishing Industry Will do That for You.
Professional Relationships
Journeys and Destinations
Best Networking Advice Ever
Know When to Hold 'em, Know When to Fold 'em
Creative Life: Steal Like an Artist
Introduction
- Steal Like an Artist
- Don't Wait Until You Know Who You Are to Make Things
- Write the Book You Want to Read
- Use Your Hands
- Side Projects and Hobbies are Important
- Do Good Work Then Put it Where People Can See it
- Geography is No Longer our Master
- Be Nice. The World is a Small Town
- Be Boring
- Creativity is Subtraction
The Hero's Journey for Writers
Introduction
- The Ordinary World
- The Call to Adventure
- Refusal of the Call
- Meeting with the Mentor
- Crossing the Threshold
- Tests, Allies, and Enemies
- Approach to the In-most Cave
- The Ordeal
- The Reward
- The Road Back
- The Resurrection
- Return with the Elixir
The Virgin's Promise for Writers
Introduction
- The Dependent World
- The Price of Conformity
- Opportunity to Shine
- Dresses the Part
- The Secret World
- No Longer Fits Her World
- Caught Shining
- Gives up What Kept Her Stuck
- The Kingdom in Chaos
- Wanders in the Wilderness
- Chooses Her Light
- Re-ordering (Rescue)
- The Kingdom is Brighter
Image: Carlos Porto / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
