Nathan Bransford - The Forums

Hmm, I have a feeling that if I were to do a word cloud of my WIP, leaving in all the common words, I would see a giant "I" staring back at me like the eye of Sauron. I'm guessing there are WAY more "I's" than four hundred in my novel. Reader rapport is closest to the gossipy nar...

It's so true! And hard to avoid in first person. My WIP is also written in first person, and I was conscious of the "I" problem when I started writing so I had my protagonist make lots of observations about others. (four I's in that sentence!) I also tried not to filter every sentence thro...

Hey, I celebrated this 4th of July weekend by going to my first-ever major league baseball game. Hearing the anthem, getting up for the seventh-inning stretch, watching our team WIN,and gazing at the fireworks afterwards, it was a great time. One of those ultimate American experiences. Happy 4th of ...

Well, the cop finally finished pitching his novel. It's actually a thinly veiled existential treatise on the plight of primates in urban environments. I told him he could make it more high-concept if he turned the monkeys into zombies or something. Anyway, the guy's a genius. I suggested he send the...

On the other hand, good for you for getting requests for your full ms. Don't dwell long on rejections. They're just rungs on a ladder.

One of my favorite characters so far is this misanthropic punker girl...She smokes, and whenever someone comments that "those things could kill you," her typical response is, "You know *I* could kill you." This could be me, except for the smoking. I quit a long time ago. Those t...

I tossed the place and still couldn't find any ARCs, but I did find this gem of a novel on one of the bookshelves. I don't know if it's all the brandy and cigar smoke fuzzing my head, but I tore out the bottom half of one of its pages and pinned it to the door for when Nathan gets back. I have a fee...

Nope. Couldn't do it. I Couldn't get through The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo so I moved on to Moby Dick! I've never read it. I always thought it was a guy book and I wouldn't like it, but I guess there's a reason the classics are what they are. Now I find myself in love with a one hundred and sixty ...

I was in this position once before and I think I did mention in query letters that the ms was being considered by an editor. I don't really know if it was the right thing to do, but the advice I was getting at the time said that agents like to know where the ms has been "shopped" already w...

Er...I traded the monkeys for a corndog, and now some guy in silver is eyeing me real hungry-like.

Sheriff is gonna be down at the saloon for hours.

Anyone got Nathan's password so I can change all these form rejects in his outgoing e-mail to YOU'RE A GENIUS - SEND ME THE FULL MS NOW?

You mean without adding in vampires, zombies, or werewolves? :P HA! I love it. My project is urban fantasy. Maybe not having vampires, zombies, or werewolves is enough high-concept. :) I seem to have cyberfootinmouth-itis. One of his books? I'm a Maassketeer! Got all the books and attended two of t...

After scratching my head a little bit, and because you got me curious, I had to go see what I could dig up about high-concept. It seems to me that what you might be looking for is a mechanism for raising the stakes. High concept seems to be about big things like good versus evil. If X doesn't battle...

You mean without adding in vampires, zombies, or werewolves? :P I'd be curious to know what others have to say, but I believe I heightened the concept of my WIP by giving it an unusual setting- in my case a distant, somewhat primitive, future. If I were telling the same story in present time it woul...

Even since I saw the movie Jaws, I can't go into the ocean. I'm scared a shark will get me. True for me as well. But since we're writers, let's up the stakes. How about random embarrassing facts? When I need a little inspiration I sometimes replay the youtube video of Susan Boyle auditioning for Br...