Tag Archives: plotting

Professional Wednesday: Punctuating Our Stories (Not the Way You Think I Mean It)

Posted on March 23, 2022 by dbjackson

“Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.” We all know the line. Even people who haven’t seen Casablanca know the line. (And please, don’t get me started about not seeing Casablanca. I mean, sure, it’s dated, … Continue reading →

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Professional Wednesday: Most Important Lessons — Trust Yourself, Trust Your Reader

Posted on March 9, 2022 by dbjackson

Today, I’m introducing a new feature for my Professional Wednesday posts: “Most Important Lessons.” We are coming up on the 28th anniversary of the start of my career (which I trace to the offer I received from Tor Books on … Continue reading →

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Professional Wednesday: Placing Your Inciting Moment In the Right Spot

Posted on February 10, 2021 by dbjackson

Generally speaking, writers — from beginners to professionals — know what it means to have an inciting moment for our stories. The inciting moment is the occurrence that sets in motion all the events that constitute our narrative — Luke … Continue reading →

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Writing-Tip Wednesday: Plotting Or Not — Doing Away With a Dumb Debate

Posted on October 28, 2020 by dbjackson

This is my forty-second Writing-Tip Wednesday post of the year, and somehow I have gotten through forty-one posts without addressing that age-old writing question, “Do I or do I not outline?” Or put another way, “Plotter or pantser?” First, a … Continue reading →

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Writing-Tip Wednesday: “Pitch Inside”

Posted on September 30, 2020 by dbjackson

In the mid-1980s, my favorite baseball player on the planet was a young pitcher for the New York Mets named Dwight Gooden. Gooden had a meteoric career that was shortened by injuries and chronic drug abuse. But for the first … Continue reading →

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Writing-Tip Wednesday: Handling a Plot-Hole Crisis

Posted on March 18, 2020 by dbjackson

So I did what all good writers do. I panicked, flew into histrionics, convinced myself that the sky was falling and all my work had been for nothing. That was fun and productive… We writers all know the feeling: We’re … Continue reading →

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Writing Tip Wednesday: Guest Author Tina LeCount Myers on Writing a Series

Posted on March 11, 2020 by dbjackson

Today I welcome to the blog my dear friend, Tina LeCount Myers. Tina and I met at a World Fantasy Convention a few years back and immediately fell into an easy friendship. I have since read her work and discovered … Continue reading →

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Writing Tip Wednesday: The Nature of Conflict

Posted on January 15, 2020 by dbjackson

When I was in grade school (yes, grade school) we were taught about the rudiments of writing – not just grammar, mind you, but also the fundamentals of storytelling. We weren’t necessarily taught these things well, but they were, at … Continue reading →

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Quick-Tip Tuesday Post on Music and Writing

Posted on October 18, 2016 by dbjackson

I usually write with a good deal of structure in my process, and so I thrive on relatively unstructured music to inspire my creative process. So, I thought, what if with this project, to which I’ve taken a relatively unstructured … Continue reading →

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It’s Quick-Tip Tuesday!!

Posted on January 19, 2016 by dbjackson

The first step is to remember that despite the way the “Plotter v. Pantser” debate is usually framed, we don’t have to approach this decision as an either-or proposition. I know people who don’t outline at all; I know people … Continue reading →

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