In which I offer up my humble insights into writing stories people will love
Get Insights for Creating Fiction Readers Can’t Put Down
Practical tips you probably won’t find anywhere else delivered right to your email box.
Sign me up to receive these story craft notes!
In the meantime…
More Practical Tips
“Page-Turning Plots” (Series)
A series on how to craft stories readers can’t stop reading. Read it now.
“The Storyteller’s Path” (Series)
Where in the Sam Hill do you begin? Right here.
My Book
If you want to write a short story or novel, step 1 is to get a good story idea. As soon as you have it, the whole process becomes electric. What’s a good story idea? How do you get one? Get the book and discover the simple truth. Then generate your next page-turner.
My Courses
I sometimes teach live courses to small groups of aspiring authors. And by small I mean somewhere around five people. This allows me to give each full attention and feedback. If you want to be notified when I’m holding the next course, click my Contact link and let me know.
“The 2 Types of Plot Every Writer Should Know” (Presentation)
A presentation at the 2024 Life, The Universe, and Everything writers conference.
“The Key Conditions for Suspense” (Series)
This is a 27-part series I wrote for The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) called The Key Conditions for Suspense.
“The Secret to Make Plotting Easier” (Recording)
“The Secret To Making Plotting Easier”
“How to Write a Story that Rocks” (Recording)
This is the two-hour 12-part video recording of the seminar Larry Correia and I gave on Feb, 11, 2010 at BYU’s “Life, the Universe, & Everything: The Marion K. ‘Doc’ Smith Symposium on Science Fiction & Fantasy.” We share a number of important concepts and principles, but I think the biggest thing you can learn from this is seeing how to go about coming up with and developing ideas. It’s an excellent example of “thing 3: the creative process.” And here’s the How to Write a Story That Rocks – Handout
“Lessons on Story from the Hunger Games” (Recording)
This is the recording of my presentation Lessons on Story From the Hunger Games given at the 2011 LTUE conference (spoilers galore!). And here’s the presentation in PDF: Story Lessons from the Hunger Games RWA 2011 (delivered a year later in Park City to the Utah chapter of RWA). Thanks again to Stephen Nelson for the recording!
“How to Get and Develop Killer Story Ideas” (Recording)
This is the recording of “How to Get and Develop Killer Story Ideas” at the 2011 LTUE with Larry Correia. We might not look pretty, but we had a great time with a full house. Use the How to Write a Story That Rocks handout from above.
“Vivid & Clear” (Recording)
This is the bootleg recording of Vivid and Clear which I presented at the 2014 LTUE conference. The room was packed.
“Story Turns” (Recording)
This is the bootleg recording of Story Turns video bootleg style. which I presented at the 2014 LTUE conference. The video I use in the presentation can be found on the 2014 LTUE presentation materials page.
Do I Read & Critique Manuscripts?
I would never fault anyone for asking a published author if they would read and critique a manuscript. I mean, duh, if I wanted to learn cabinet making, shooting, accounting, writing, whatever–I’d want a professional to give me tips and feedback. So I don’t think anyone should feel bad for asking. Alas, I am simply too busy with my day job, my writing job, and my family to even think about being able to do this. So I do not read and critique manuscripts. But that doesn’t mean you can’t get expert feedback.
First, I will happily give you feedback on your story idea, as stated in story setup format described in lesson 6 on developing your idea or the Blake Snyder Save the Cat! books. It must be no longer than 300 words.
Second, go to a conference where I’m presenting. If you come to the conference and say hello, I can certainly respond to your pitch, concept, or even your first page. I still won’t have time to read and report my experience with the whole manuscript, but it’s better than nothing.
Finally, sometimes the best insights come from reading the work of others and noticing where you feel it was interesting, boring, unclear, or unbelievable. Just mark where you had those reactions and try to identify what about it triggered that response.
