Sometimes, when Mister Words reads his old stuff, he doesn’t remember writing it. And sometimes I think it’s good. I’ll marvel at a particular word choice or phrase, pondering “Where…
Here’s one of the best pieces of advice Mister Words has ever seen on the subject of creativity, courtesy of the late, great Kurt Vonnegut: In 2006 a high school English…
Recently a thread has been bumping around on social media called “Ten Books that Have Stayed with You.” This doesn’t necessarily refer to the ten greatest books you’ve ever read,…
About 20 percent of what Mister Words discusses with his writing coaching clients involves technical problems — dialogue, characterization, plot, subtext, voice and the like. The other 80 percent? Emotional…
Character names are more important than many authors, especially beginning ones, realize. I read a book a few years back in which most of the main characters were given two…
I’ve often said that marketing a book is like running for office—mostly grass roots appearances (sometimes in readers’ homes), rubber chicken lunches and book store signings where patrons generally ask…
What is a platform? Being the architect of your project is only the first step to your success as a writer or artist. Your platform is your connection to the…
A while back a friend of mine emailed me and asked me about setting up a simple blog style website. Since I’ve built hundreds of personal websites from scratch over…
Over the course of his writing career, Mister Words has conducted dozens, if not hundreds, of author presentations, workshops, seminars, Q & A’s, panel discussions and many more public appearances.…