Category Archives: Tips

Book Review – The 2018 Author’s Journal

Posted on January 18, 2018 by mtdecker

Author: Audrey Ann Hughey Title: The 2018 Author’s Journal Pages: 346 Formats: Paperback 8.5×11 Language: English ISBN-10: 198146476X ISBN-13: 978-1981464760 Availability: Amazon,  Website: https://www.thewriteservices.com/ Book Blurb Make 2018 Your Best Author Year Ever! The 2018 Author’s Journal is a planner designed for authors, providing … Continue reading →

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Book Review – The Fantasy Fiction Formula by Deborah Chester

Posted on December 14, 2017 by mtdecker

Author: Deborah Chester Title: The Fantasy Fiction Formula Pages: 264 Formats: Paperback, Kindle, Nook … podcast… Publisher: Manchester University Press; 1 edition (February 1, 2016) Language: English ISBN-10: 0719097061 ISBN-13: 978-0719097065 Availability: Amazon,  Barnes and Noble Website: DeborahChester dot com Book Blurb “Listen carefully to what Debbie … Continue reading →

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Welcome to the insanity that is: NaNoWriMo

Posted on November 12, 2015 by mtdecker

It’s that time of year again: friends vanish for long stretches of time and start obsessing about word counts and write-ins, all in the name of NaNoWriMo.  For those of you who haven’t heard about it, November is National Novel … Continue reading →

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A Serious Word on Backups…

Posted on May 19, 2014 by mtdecker

Making a backup isn’t always enough – take it from me: go the extra step and make sure a) you’ve backed up what you think you have and b) it actually worked. I’ve just come back from a ‘catastrophic’ failure … Continue reading →

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Poetry Part 2: Rhyme and meter aka Rhythm and Rhyme

Posted on May 9, 2014 by mtdecker

Words have rhythm when spoken and when we’re rhyming it’s not always the last syllable that makes the rhyme work.   Eons ago, when I was working on a solo for ‘State Solo and Ensemble Festival’ my flute teacher talked … Continue reading →

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Musings on the importance of the first line

Posted on April 28, 2014 by mtdecker

A lot of people talk about having a hook, or if we are going for a fishing metaphor lure, that catches the reader’s attention long enough to hook them and draw them in… but there’s a lot more to it … Continue reading →

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Poetry: Part 2 Interrelationships

Posted on January 18, 2014 by mtdecker

As stated in the overview, emotion, rhythm and meaning are building blocks of poetry.  In Part 1 we discussed them in relationship to words, now it’s time to think about their relationship to each other. One of the best examples … Continue reading →

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Anatomy of a story – FlashFriday #37

Posted on August 21, 2013 by mtdecker

Today I’ve decided to do something different with my ‘post game’ analysis of my FlashFiction story.  Today, rather than watching the actual story develop, I’m going to talk about how the idea of the story developed and the adventure and … Continue reading →

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It’s about Character

Posted on August 16, 2013 by mtdecker

I was given a book, “The Writer’s Lab (a place to experiment with fiction)” by Sexton Burke.  I can’t tell you much about the book yet, but one of the first things it had me do was write down my … Continue reading →

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Poetry: Part 1 Words and emotion

Posted on July 17, 2013 by mtdecker

A friend of mine expressed their sadness at a friend’s passing and lamented the fact that they never got to tell that friend how they really felt about them. When I tried, and failed, to express my sympathies, I ended … Continue reading →

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