This is a question I’ve often asked myself, and I would imagine most writers who have looked seriously at their craft have also wondered, “Do I have what it takes?” I’m going to hand the microphone (metaphorically) over to one of the most successful screenwriters of all time, Terry Rossio. He wrote, co-wrote, or headed …
In the previous post, I rambled on a bit about what types of music I generally listen to (when I can). This post (another ramble) is specifically about the music I do listen to as an aid to my writing, and under what circumstances. So, in full disclosure, I don’t listen to music very often …
I Love Music Quite a variety of it. I just don’t get to listen to it much anymore (unless I take a break from writing — What! Heresy!) Early Days When I was a kid, my parents had a small record player, and a number of vinyl LPs, mostly classical, show tunes, and big band …
Sometimes readers will more easily accept the premise if they understand what’s happening from a technical point of view. To achieve that without a huge info dump a frequent technique used in movies is to have someone who doesn’t understand ask a question. My wife and I refer to that person as The Doofus Character. …
What if your story hinges on something being true, but you have no way to prove that it could happen? How do you convince your reader that it could? You could read every scientific treatise related to the subject at hand and devise a logical-sounding theory, but that obviously isn’t always practical (and is certainly …
I’ve been spending far too many hours in front of my computer monitor lately. On December 11, 2020, I published my latest book, Aggravated. I had been working on it exclusively for the past several years, and had set aside several other projects that were in various stages of completion while I finished and published …
As I mentioned in the previous post, I often read books which aren’t related to what I’m writing about at any given time. While I was in the final year of polishing and editing (and doing a ton of fact-checking) for my book, Aggravated, I acquired the full collection of Elizabeth George’s Inspector Lynley mysteries. …
Background When I was younger (pre-teen through high school) I read a great deal. All sorts of things. Sci-fi, adventure, classics, horror. Jules Verne, H. G. Wells, Robert Louis Stevenson, Aldous Huxley, George Orwell, Charles Dickens, H. P. Lovecraft, etc. I’ve added other authors to the list since then, of course, too many to mention …
fallow, adjective. 2: dormant, inactive —used especially in the phrase to lie fallow A New First Post The final posts in my previous blog were written in 2016, roughly five years ago. What was happening between then and now? Why did I let those websites lie fallow all that time? I could make a number …
[Originally posted on my previous website, michael dot sirois dot com] When plotting and planning my writing, I am often given to stochastic thoughts and inconsequential ramblings which will, hopefully (someday) further develop into something concrete, so I thought we ought to take a look at the word stochastic. Etymology of stochastic From Ancient Greek …