Pick a site, any site. What’s the first thing you notice? What draws your attention right away? Where do your eyes land? What do they do then? Do your eyes flow over the page? Do they follow a specific path, flicking to the left, then skimming over to the right and maybe down the page? [...]
How to Be Funny
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So Copyblogger (for whom James writes regularly) recently ran an article on how to be 20% funnier than you currently are. Now, I enjoyed this article, so I’m not going to trash it. I will say that I think the author missed some seriously easy ways to inject humor into your writing. Here goes: Follow [...]
Six Elements You Must Master to Write a Publishable Novel
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We like to cater to the desires of all types of writers, from fiction to copywriting. (Check out our posts on fiction writing here.) So when Larry Brooks, an old friend, an ex pro baseball player and most importantly a bestselling novelist, offered to write a series on fiction writing and getting published, I was [...]
Five Things You Absolutely Need to Know Before You Write a Novel
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We like to cater to the desires of all types of writers, from fiction to copywriting. (Check out our posts on fiction writing here.) So when Larry Brooks, an old friend, an ex pro baseball player and most importantly a bestselling novelist, offered to write a series on fiction writing and getting published, I was [...]
What James Did This Summer and Where He Got the Money
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“Well, that’s just it!” I love it when Naomi says that. I really do. And I grinned from where I was folded up like a lawn chair in the back of the rental car. Her husband Jamie, our driver of the moment, was nodding, and we all agreed: Some people just don’t get it. And [...]
How to Make Scary-Big Stuff Happen
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I used to want to own a castle. I still do. But as I got older, I began to want other things more attainable than a castle. I wanted to make a living entirely from my writing, for example. (Done.) I wanted to own a motorcycle named Butch Cassidy. (Being made by a mechanic friend [...]
How Far Should You Take Your Creativity?
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Creative people always try to think out of the box and look for the next brilliant idea. We want to create something so unique and incredibly outstanding that it makes the rest of the world pay attention. But how far is too far? How much can you stretch the boundaries of convention? Where is the [...]
What the Carnies Can Teach You About Freelancing
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The taste of dust in my mouth. The smell of cows in the air. The sound of buzzers, bells and staccato gunfire ringing in my ears. Loud screams… Yes, folks, the local fair has been in town. For a few days each year, the empty lot behind the skating rink transforms into a razzle-dazzle low-scale [...]
Drive-By Shooting Special: Pick Nick’s Brains
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“I am never doing this again,” James hissed, exaggerating his tip-toeing just in case a floorboard creaked and set off the noise again. “You volunteered,” Harry said from the sofa where he’d been leafing through a magazine. “SHHH!!!” The waving hand said it all. “You’ll wake her up! Goddamned little-…” “James.” The disapproving look on [...]
Three Ways to Use Your Screw-Around Time to Improve Your Business
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Working from home has many perks. For example, I just recently placed a small microphone under a tree stump in my front yard. When the mail carrier tries to go by my house without picking up my outgoing mail, I pretend to be Satan tallying up that willful disregard for my postcards as a mark [...]
