J.B. Sommerset

"Lil' Shroom in the Potatoes" by J.B. Sommerset (c) 2024 This summer has been strange, too cold and too cloudy, and now- instantly hot, a raging inferno. I went from bringing my plants in because it was too cold, to making sure they had enough shade within a couple of weeks. Half way through June it was 40 F at night here. Last night it was 85 F. Lousy climate change. Through my sweat and feverish delirium, I remembered I owe you guys a quote of the week, so here it is: "Love should be testing at times, but never at any time should it be a test." J.B. Sommerset Cheers!

I have talked about this subject before, and it's critical to good story telling. I don't know how many more times I will bring this up, but I will... So just be prepared for it.  This topic is going to come back like the blood everyone thought they totally got cleaned up, but under luminal and black light? Yep, it's still there. It will come back like the drunk guy all of us in the car know we hit but aren't sure is dead. Or that stalker that sneaks back into our house after we got the restraining order. The one that sits quietly in the dark waiting to talk in a distant and mysterious tone... you get the idea. The technique I am speaking of is, of course, the " show don't tell " technique. The "TLDR" is simple, it is a narrative technique that assumes the audience aren't morons and also that they can figure things out for themselves. Things like subtext, language usage, foreshadowing, use of senses, thoughts, feelings, (ad nauseum) the get t...

Sometimes, it's important to remember that writing is about transmitting ideas and the audience receiving them. If we are writing an academic paper it is best to be technical with what we are saying and concise- to the point. If we are writing an instruction manual it is best to be orderly and descriptive. etc. If we are telling a story, we need to show the audience what the characters and events mean. The reader or the person listening to the story must go on a journey with the characters.  We need to show them, not tell them, telling them takes something away from the journey.  Sometimes in my YouTube wanderings and explorations, I find videos that I see as particularly useful for developing skills. I then sometimes post them so all of you don't have to spend 40 years in the desert looking for a home. I hope this one helps some of you develop your skills, enjoy! Cheers!

As writers, I hope all of us also read. Reading is the foundation of writing, at least for most authors, and it's important to recognize crap from cream. Sometimes other writers make us feel small with their skill and prowess. Some, not so much, sometimes we are revolted by the works of other writers. Sometimes we have to put a book down because it made us throw up in our mouths a little.  As a writer, I can safely say that nothing turns off my reading boner like poorly thought-out stories. Especially ones where the plot holes are big enough to fly a plane through. Sometimes, it seems the writer didn't try. Some of the telltale signs of lazy writers are lousy character development, hideous syntax, poor descriptions, weak development of themes and continuity, super thick plot armor, or MacGuffins. All of which are reasons to put a book down and forget about it. And god, do I hate me some MacGuffins- the sure sign that a person is a lazy writer. That being said, there is one mist...

I might have posted this one before, but I feel it deserves a re-post if I have. We all have origin stories when it comes to how we became writers; that place, time, or situation in which we decided, and then became writers. It's important to know where we came from because that will always shape where we are going.  One of my favorite stories about how a person became a writer is Paul Auster's story and his journey. Incidentally, he is also a really good storyteller and for anyone who hasn't read his world, I recommend them. Enjoy! Cheers, and keep on creating!

This one is not only for the writers out there, but also the spoken word junkies, the coffeeshop screenwriters, and even some of the songwriters out there. Karl Iglesias is a writer, teacher, and storyteller, and he has some valuable insight into why storytelling is so important, what its purpose is, and how to build a story that really moves people. I thought I would share it with all of you because I feel that what he has to say is important, especially what he has to say about the purpose of your story. Enjoy! Cheers, and keep on creating!

( Photo credit to Cottonbro of Pixel ) Any good writer should know where their story is going, what it's about, where it will end and how the characters will end. This will give the writer some direction when creating the work, the flow, and the characters. We do this using themes, the plot, and the character arcs. First, let's define them and explain why they are essential. A theme is the subject matter that permeates the story, the atmosphere, and the ambiance. It can also be reoccurring ideas or situations that illustrate an integral part of the story. Case in point, a story about good versus evil and the conflict between them, I might say "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." If someone wanted a story about justice, I might say "Crime and Punishment." The theme defines and is defined by the author's message. The theme describes the subjects that the author wants to explore. The plot is the vehicle the theme rides inside. The plot is the series of events that re...

I was perusing the interwebs, as one does when one has some extra time. So there I was sitting on the crapper scrolling through my newly created Twitter account. I am still adjusting to Twitter when I came across a rabbit hole. This particular rabbit hole is a controversial one when it comes to art, music, and the crafts of writing and storytelling. But nonetheless, I recognize it as one of the most expressive mediums to work in and have even dabbled in it from time to time.  If a person knew where to look and could dig deep enough, they might even find some of my old work buried between the dark web and the deepweb- not to date myself. I am of course speaking of video games as a storytelling medium. If there are some older folks reading this I understand your trepidation, but I would argue that some of the best storytelling ever has been done on game consoles and PCs. Between consuming Tolkein and  Conan Doyle Some of my favorites were the likes of Square enix and Capcom. In ...

Sometimes we (as writers or readers) notice the antagonists in a story more than we notice the protagonists. There is something delicious about a good piece of evil, a bad guy that meets our standards better than the rest. This is true throughout many of the greatest stories in history, from Lago to Tyler Durdon . In many cases, we know the bad guy better, because he or she is human and flawed. We identify with them more, and that makes for compelling storytelling. If we dig deep enough we will usually find a part of ourselves in the best of bad guys- and that is truly scary and also exhilarating.    Cheers, and keep on creating! 

Richard Walter here has a realistic, and some would say sobering, look at the craft. I want to share his words with all of you because sometimes us dreams need to put our feet on the ground.  Cheers, and keep on creating! 

One of the hardest parts about writing a book, or creating great art or music is getting discouraged with the work.  Most of us start with a great idea, that is, "in short"- meaning we have the summary, and the "meat" of the story needs to be added to make it into a full-length novel. Ninety-Nine percent of us don't have the whole idea in our heads when we sit down to let the work possess us.  Instead, most of us channel the demons inside to make our work complete. We fight with the monsters. We ride the winds and light the fires. We try and keep up with the waves of struggle and capture the emotions in our words or paintbrush strokes. We cut our flesh and insert ourselves into what we create. And as the process unfolds, it slowly murders us with its purpose, so we build it up.  Consequently, it breaks us and weighs us down, yet we struggle to lift it with our very souls even if it drowns us.  As we push, the pressure builds and builds until we explode, are spen...

Dedication: This one goes out to all those perfectionists out there. The ones who are still trying to release their works, the writers in aspiration, the ones whose babies haven't left the nest yet. I hope to see you on the shelves sometime soon, if not, let's see you in audio or eBook format soon.  There is no doubt that most writers want one of two things. The first is to make enough money from their writing to leave the workforce and write full time. To hang out at coffee shops musing and typing away until something profound and wonderful comes out of the fingertips. This first goal is wholly achievable, we can make enough money to live off of with our craft. The second one is a little more egotistical and much harder; it's to write the best novel ever written. This goal is most likely not possible, because the outcome is largely subjective.  What defines the "best" novel ever written? Why, of course, the people who read it. Therefore, since no one can agree on...

I've talked about this before, this is a hard one to fully grasp. Much like the idea that there are only a few basic plots ( The seven deadly plots ), there is a belief that there are only a few basic voices that a writer can use (at least in western literature). Five to be exact:  1) the casual voice: The we all use to talk about the weather.  2) The metaphor voice: The one we talk "deeply" in. The metaphor, simile, and dream voice.  3) The salesman's or narrative voice- the voice of the preacher or the politician. The one that repeats itself over and over to make something stick.  4) The abstract voice that we all use to capture dreams and poems.  5) The fifth voice is the voice of the author, the message, and the way it can be delivered from the person writing. The voice of the over-arching "storyteller".  I used to think the five voices were restrictive, just like the seven plots. They are not. As authors we like to be unique and special snowflakes, we ...

I have written a few crazy-complicated plots in my time. Some of which made it past the "pen and ink" phase. The rest, I quietly took out back in the early hours of the morning before the sun came up. I gently and lovingly strangled them and buried them there. There's a hydrangea there now, growing on top of those dead ideas. Someday I might dig those decaying messes up and bring them back to life, but they are a mess for now. They are illegible, tangled, and incomprehensible piles of nonsense, and thinking about them embarrasses me.  The problem wasn't that they were weak or unoriginal. It was that the writing was too complicated to sort out, rewrite, and polish.  -cough, cough, cough-  In other words, I was too lazy and didn't have the time or energy to fix them. I don't believe that a plot can be too complicated, only unorganized- look at  Game of Thrones.    One of the problems with writing, especially the more significant works, is that they need to be...

Greetings, fellow writers. This time I come to you with some advice (take it or leave it), about book covers and when to make them. First off, if you are the kind of person who has someone else make the covers of your books, disregard most of this advice. If not, this one is for you, no since advising the ones who already have this one figured out.  First of all, a cover is a lot like the novel you are working on; it needs to be revised until you feel it matches the work you created. It may go through many iterations and versions as the work evolves. I think all of my books were this way, I created a cover that changed as the novel was updated and new editions were made (some more dramatically than others). Patchwork Indigo's cover didn't change too much (it was my first). The rest, well let's just say most of them had several covers- especially Midlife Mike (it had seven different covers).  As a general rule of thumb, I find one cover per revision is the way to go. Start ...

This post is all about writing with an apostrophe, and I don't mean the technical use of said punctuation mark- I mean the way we write with words like, won't, can't, couldn't, shouldn't, didn't (etc.).  I grew up in a world where the phrase " can not"  was an acceptable way to write. It was formal. It was preferred in certain circumstances. When I became a real writer, my editor asked me why the hell I " did not " use apostrophes...  Yeah, you thought this post was about something else. I tricked you. This post is about contractions! I resisted it for a long time because I was taught that they were informal writing in most cases. The truth is this; they are informal, and that is their value. A novel is informal writing, and one of the crucial things that makes a book readable is its flow. Contractions make that flow more enjoyable and easier to read. Humans don't speak in completely formal language.  I write novels, but for a long time ...

Here's one I haven't written about before. Point of view, or POV, is all-important to the contours of your story. It will define how the story sounds in people's heads and make it easier, or harder, for them to follow its flow. This is one I have experimented with a lot. When I first started writing, back in the day (eighth grade, I think), I wrote in the standard way, following the usual rules.  My first novel was written in  the third person omniscient POV . I never published that novel. I have considered going back and redoing it recently, but it's hard to find the time and it's 750 pages.  Following that novel, I wrote a couple of more stories in the third person omniscient; none of them were perfect- I was finding my writing chops. Point of view is a massive part of a person's style.  Learning which POV works for you is part of finding out how you shine as an author or creator. I will give a brief overview of the three points of view, and some tips on how t...