writing

Kill Gilligan! or Why Do Characters Do That?

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From 1964 through 1967, Gilligan’s Island was produced and broadcast. I saw the show in syndication when I was a kid.

Virtually every one of the 98 episodes involved the castaways attempting to get rescued with Gilligan screwing it up somehow. The question wasn’t if he’d screw it up but how.

Now, the show was a comedy, a farce really. It was mindless entertainment. It was absurd. Taken for that, the storytelling was fine.

However, if you’re writing this story and not doing it as a comedy, what would the characters really do? At a minimum, they’d tie Gilligan to a palm tree until they were rescued. Perhaps one of them would kill Gilligan. Does that sound harsh? How many attempts would the sanest person see fail because of one man’s idiocy until he helped that man meet with an accident?

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The Power of Fear

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Fear is a powerful, perhaps the most powerful, driver of people. It can push a person to perform impressive feats.

Think of what continues to drive a highly successful person. Is it fear? Is it the fear of winding up penniless? Is this why a billionaire continues to work, take risks, and make money?

When in the woods and a person see a bear, fear urges caution and retreat. The person will walk the other way, cautiously and quickly.

The person driven by these fears is harnessing them to a positive end.

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The Too-short Shortcut

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For a change of pace, I thought I’d write about writing on my writing blog. Lately, I’ve been thinking about the writing problems that I often see. There’s the exposition/infodump issue. This is actually the anti-shortcut issue. Typically, this is worldbuilding information, oftentimes completely irrelevant to the scene. In this case, either cut it completely, … Read more

An Annoying and Fruitful Commute

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An Friday, May 9th, while commuting to work, I pondered further revisions to Shifting Mars’ Sands. Recently, Ch. 2 became Ch. 1. The old Ch. 1 became Ch. 6. The last scene from the old Ch. 1 became Ch. 2. At this point, my protagonist, Gretchen, starts the novel. The leader of the antagonist side, … Read more

What’s a Cow Orker?

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Recently, I read a writing tipon hyphenation. It’s well worth reading, so please check it out. One point, the author failed to clearly make was that a hyphen is required when the unhyphenated word can be misread. For instance, “co-pilot” when not hyphenated is “cop ilot.” Of course, “ilot” is ridiculous, but that’s the point—the … Read more

New Year’s Resolution

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I know it’s been a few weeks since I last posted. I’ve been thinking about how to word this post properly. The beginning of a new year brings with it people making resolutions to change their lives. You’ll find no resolutions like lose 20 pounds this year or workout twice a week here. All they … Read more

The Hard Words

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Recently, I posted about writing difficulties: understanding poetry and getting the right amount of emotion into a piece. Going back as far as late spring, the words have been hard. I didn’t know why they were hard, only that they were. I chalked it up to finishing my novel, Shifting Mars’ Sands, with a writers’ … Read more

My Problem with Poetry

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Two consecutive days of posts? Is there a problem? No. Christmastime is many things: busy, stressful, joyful, and at times, troubling. I suspect that I won’t make another post until after Christmas. So, I thought I’d get this post up… * * * The Saturday writing group is getting more poetry submissions. This poses a … Read more

Improving Slow Reads

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Some time ago, I was told the beginning of my novel read slow. I wasn’t sure how to address it. I removed many unnecessary scenes and combined others. Still, I didn’t think I did enough. After spending the summer strictly doing reviews for the Saturday morning writing group, I acquired a new perspective. I needed … Read more

Thanksgiving Weekend

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Thanksgiving was a quiet holiday, a four-day weekend of much needed downtime. My wife made a delicious Thanksgiving lunch with enough leftovers to last the rest of the weekend. For the first time that I can recall (though she said she’d done so once before), she used both ovens in the kitchen. I walked into … Read more