I chatted with a New York Times Bestselling Author

We knew each other in high school, graduated together ….

Peter V. Brett, @PVBrett, author of The Warded Man series and more, tweeted that he was in Orlando for the SFSE2015 conference.

Hmmm ….. that’s only 3.5 hours. It always cool to catch up with people from high school and college. I grew up in New Rochelle, NY and many stayed in that area. Here in Miami, FL it seems to be just me lol.

He mentioned he would be in Author’s Avenue from 10-Noon. So at 630am I was enroute.

We ended up chatting for about 45 minutes and naturally we spoke about being an author and publishing and so forth.

Early on in our conversation he mentioned a specific book that helped set the foundation to getting his stories on the New York Times Besteller list:

Writing to Sell by Scott Meredith

With the things he learned in that book he dusted off his fourth attempt at storytelling, cut 2/3’ds out of it, rewrote and shortened the story.

That fourth book, the one his agent was able to sell to Random House, was The Warded Man.

The Warded Man: Book One of The Demon Cycle

Be sure to check him out. 🙂

My copy of Writing to Sell is already on its way to me. 😀

Part 8 Surprises in writing a science fiction thriller

Never let the technical overshadow the art.

Then I thought about how I might explain that, and came up with this:
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Art always trumps the technical; the grammar, the sentence structure, the etc, the ad infinitum.

Technical:

What is that mild illumination coming in through the window? That’s the sunrise, and Juliet represents the sun.

Art:

But soft! What light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.

Multiple online results talk about how Shakespeare had more freedom back then to use the English language in the manner in which he did.

Yeah, so? What’s holding people back today? Catering to the lowest demographic or something?

If someone were to ask me about writing in that form I would wholeheartedly encourage them to go ahead and write like Shakespeare.

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But if you are ‘terrible’ at art and really have to work at it then how would you tell it?

First of all you can do art just fine, remember that.

Second, you don’t tell it ……. you show it.

Tell:
Is that the early morning sunlight beginning to come in through the window? Due to the rotation of the earth the sun rises in the east, and there is Juliet, her inner glow providing it’s own illumination, she’s just like the sun.

Show:
But soft! What light through yonder breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.

Early on I was very much inclined to write in the ‘Tell’ format. Showing is moh bettah and moh fun.

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There is a last part:

STORY trumps all, including art. Showing is good, but not at the expense of the story and it’s flow. 😀

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Part 7 Surprises in writing a science fiction thriller

A surprise developed earlier this week that couldn’t be held back anymore.

The chest burster … uh … burst out!

My research into the details of a plot line has now expanded into an entirely new novel idea, PERSIA AWAKENING, a military fiction thriller.

I say expanded because several military stuffs are part of the science fiction thriller, but that plot line and those plot devices have developed a life of their own.

Now several of my supporting characters have become main characters in the new series.

The toughest part is keeping the timing right between the two series.

Guess I’ll just have to work it out. 😉

Part 6 Surprises in writing a science fiction thriller

I’ve been procrastinating.

Primarily because of Part 1, my first surprise in writing a science fiction thriller novel, Emotions.

Weird huh?

I know that the part I’m going to write is going to go deep into emotion, that’s the point of that particular plotline.

I’m concerned about how I’ll feel about it 😆

But it has to get done. This weekend baby 😀

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There is a last part:

STORY trumps all, including art. Showing is good, but not at the expense of the story and it’s flow. 😀

.

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