Nathan Bransford - The Forums

I'm going through something of this myself. I'm about to start the third act of my book but I've been "about to start the third act of my book" for a couple of weeks now. I make tiny edits to old chapters or outline some notes here and there, but for the most part I'm at a total loss. It's...

Huge help everybody! I have a clearer idea on where my book stands now, and what NA really is.

About to start the third and final act. Oh boy.

So I am about 50k words into my roughly 80k word MS and I'm having a tough time focusing on the genre of my story... The synopsis: Deep in the middle of nowhere lies a hotel/casino where my MC Martin loses everything. He loses his money, his girlfriends money, his bosses money, and struggles with th...

In my first MS I discovered I used the word "pretty" way too often. At first I thought "Pretty" was a pretty good word that I used pretty much all of the time (pun intended). I was shocked to see how often I had used it when it was first pointed out. In my current MS I know I hav...

If writing was a person I'd ask him why he never leaves me alone when I'm busy and why he never hangs out when I'm not.

I was perusing through some writers blogs over the past couple of days and one topic that stood out to me was, "What type (if any) of formal education do you have as a writer?" Me personally, I have none. The only experience I have is the creative writing courses I took in high school. I r...

How do you know if your writing is any good? A very easy question to ask and an easier one to answer (at least for me). The answer: you don't. Like many of the other people who have posted in this thread I find that most of the positive comments I receive I tend to brush off as "cheerleading&qu...

To wait until we're published is like a Double- or Triple-A baseball player who is waiting for the call to the Big Leagues NOT calling themselves an athlete. I love this line! As much as I enjoy the craft of writing I don't think I would still be doing it if it weren't for support from other writer...

So far I have finished the first draft of my first novel and I'm barreling ( :D ) my way through my second. I also write short stories in between to help with writers block and just for a fresh change of pace in general. My day job however is waiting tables and I always feel a little bit of guilt ev...

I'm in for 30k...

but I'm taking a one week head start and starting today.

I'm in the last true industry of starving artists. I work as a waiter at a steakhouse.

This is so Gonzo I don't even get it...and I wrote it... I’ll never forget Marty Richardson. The man had a knack for sticking in your mind, even with a head full of acid. He looked like a clown without makeup. Prominent cheek bones formed a smile that extended for miles. It stretched all around his...

The majority of my work is in a "first person rant" style of writing. I branch a little into the paranormal but for the most part I just write about a relativley small but personal conflict that my MC is fighting. Im almost sure all of this came from reading, and loving, Catcher in the Rye...

It's my opinion that it doesn't matter what genre it is, chapters should be as long or as short as you see fit. With that being said I tend to notice shorter chapters in the beginning and longer chapters towards the end in most of the books I read. I attribute this to how the beginning of the book i...

simonmabee wrote:Instead of Germans at the time he likely would have referred to them as Fritz, Huns, Heinie, Kraut, or Boche (but that was mostly french. Maybe Jerries but that was more WWII though saw some in WWI since they did introduce the helmet style in late WWI.

Thanks!