Category: Guest Posts

Getting it Right: Courtroom Writing by Karen A. Wyle

Author and attorney Karen A. Wyle

In true lawyer fashion, I’ll begin with a couple of caveats:

• I am an appellate attorney. I don’t do trial work. I read trial transcripts, as well as appellate decisions that analyze what went on at trial and the rules that were or were not followed there. This gives me a fair-to-middling knowledge of what really goes on in courtrooms. It is possible that some evidentiary rules, for example, tend to be ignored in practice.

• I’m licensed to practice only in Indiana and some federal jurisdictions. (I am an inactive member of the California bar as well.) I’ll try to confine my comments to principles and procedures that are likely to apply nationwide, and to indicate when different states’ rules may vary. Continue reading “Getting it Right: Courtroom Writing by Karen A. Wyle“

Writing the National Security Thriller: Verisimilitude by James Bruno

Bestselling Author James Bruno
Bestselling Author James Bruno

Two ingredients are essential for writing a successful novel: good writing and knowledge of the subject matter. Just as a murder mystery reads better when the detective work and forensics reflect true life, so is it with national security thrillers. These include spy, political and military thrillers.

Verisimilitude: Separating the Plausible from the B.S.

What separates the outstanding national security thrillers from the rest of the pack is verisimilitude: creating characters, situations and plots that closely resemble the real thing. The worst thrillers are the ones where the author simply fabricates how a spy/political actor/soldier operates. That is not to say that the latter don’t become bestsellers. They often do. The authors of thrillers lacking in verisimilitude succeed by spinning a good yarn for which readers are willing to suspend big-time disbelief. Ian Fleming’s James Bond is a case in point. Wonderful entertainment. Totally divorced from the real world. Continue reading “Writing the National Security Thriller: Verisimilitude by James Bruno”

Branded by J.L. Murray

Author J. L. Murray

In my travels in the last year as an indie writer, I’ve learned a thing or two about selling my books. I’ve also learned what not to do. What to do and what not to do are what you always hear bloggers and writers screaming from the rooftops. It’s mostly people getting their panties in a bunch about spamming and establishing your brand. After a while, it makes your ears bleed, you hear it so many times. Spamming I get. It’s annoying. People don’t like to have their nose rubbed in your book. But branding? It just sounds painful and unnecessary to me. Like professional wrestling. Or dating Donald Trump.

No matter how many times I hear it, building a brand sounds more and more like a race car driver, plastering Pepsi and Conoco stickers all over his car and his person. This is what I think of when people talk about brands. Like writers are walking around with stickers all over their nobbly sweaters reading Paranormal Romance and Rock and Roll Horror Fiction and Zombie Erotica. Which makes me think that maybe the so-called gurus that tell us what do do may not have it right. What if these people telling you what to do are (gasp!) wrong? That would mean, of course, that I’m probably wrong, but if you’re familiar with my brand, that might not surprise you.

Maybe, just maybe, we should worry less about the brand and more about the writing. Continue reading “Branded by J.L. Murray“

Culture and writing style by Hugh Ashton

Author Hugh Ashton

First of all, I want to explain my position, which is a somewhat unusual one. I live in a country which is not the country of my birth, and doesn’t even use the same language (Japan is where I live, and the UK is where I lived up to 24 years ago). As a result, I tend to feel a little out of things – correction – I do feel very out of things, when it comes to contemporary society in the UK. Of course I return to Britain at relatively regular intervals, but not for long enough to absorb the culture in such a way that I can write meaningfully about it. After all, I left the UK when Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister – she’s a name in history books now. John Major, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown all came and went without my assistance. Continue reading “Culture and writing style by Hugh Ashton“