Recent content by T.Allen.Smith

My favorite kid joke. Knock, knock. Who’s there? Interrupting Cow. Interrupting cow- Moo! Youngins love it, but past 12 and you’ll get nothing but eye rolls.

No. That one was an experiment, and I’ve done nothing with it since. The short title was Benediction. I think it was Iron Pen 14 or 15. Can’t remember.

Yours. Iron Pen, I believe it was called.

Thank you, Thinker. It goes well. I’ll be wrapping up the 3rd rewrite by the end of the year. Then one more minor polish before I send it out for editing. But, yes. That’s a good example, where the short from a challenge here turned into a full novel with multiple plot lines, a vast character...

His point is simply that there’s always more story to tell. Plot is another matter.

Not at all. It’s just one possible piece of it & the most common with beginning writers. To be clear, I’m talking about prose where it’s predominantly telling to the detriment of the story. I’m not speaking of stories with balance, nor stories which may be told overwhelming through telling, yet...

I think this is true, generally. Unless, of course, your issue is too much telling & not enough showing. In that case, looking for -ly words and choosing which might be good places to instead show, may be effective.

“There is no real ending. It’s just the place where you stop the story.” - Frank Herbert I’ve never understood how other writers can look at a story they haven’t completed and know how many books it’ll take. I’ve seen and heard so many people say their current WIP is going to be a trilogy...

Every type of word has its place & uses. Sometimes an adverb is the perfect choice, but they can also be a crutch for weak writing. It’s the old Show vs. Tell debate. Most times it’s probably best to depict through description the very thing the adverb would tell succinctly, but that isn’t...

I typically do a hybrid approach. Half pantser. Half outliner. This is true of longer works, novellas and novel-sized, but not for shorts stories. For shorts, I work from a strict outline because the scope is so limited. Few characters. Few story lines. Everything concise. For longer works...

Always good to hear of success!

Not all MCs change. Some stay constant as the world changes around them.

The only golden, unbreakable rule of fiction writing that I'm aware of is that whatever you're writing must be interesting. Even that is subjective. Additionally, don't fall into that "first line" trap. It might be a first first line that hooks the reader. There are certainly some great...

It thought it was good, not great. (Logan, in my opinion, is a great superhero film.) Still, Black Panther is good. My kids loved it. There’s some interesting symbolism in the climactic fight. It takes place on an Underground Railroad, which can’t be coincidental. I enjoyed that choice of...

I think it depends on the type of story you wish to tell. In my opinion, some of the greatest stories have no bad guy at all, but good versus good. In Les Miserables, for example, you have an antagonist in Javert, who’s obsessive, but I wouldn’t classify him as bad. Then you have most of the...