Welcome to My Writing Life

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Welcome to my Writing Life - Deadly Vision is Coming!

Just a quick note to get things started.

What I hope to do here is pass along all the little tricks, strategies and lessons I've learned along the way of striving to be a professional writer. I've had some success on this path. I've published a health/wellness book, TriEnergetics: Balancing Nutrition, Exercise and Meditation for Lasting Wellness with New Harbinger Press that's in its third printing and been translated into several languages. I've published articles with Men's Fitness and Men's Health, penned some ten to fifteen cover features in various national magazines. Not a bad start.

But my main love is fiction.

My passion is novels. Thrillers. I've got stories brimming in my head, dying to be put to page.  Can't tell you, then, how thrilled I am that my debut novel, Deadly Vision, has been purchased by an independent publisher and will be coming directly to you in 2025!

It's been a long, strange trip for this one. For sure.  

Every author has their story about how hard it was to get published and how they had to preserve.  I dare say, few will compare to my tale. 

But that's a story for another day.

Having just completed the final revisions of my medical/thriller Deadly Vision, my plan is to pass onto you, various lessons I've learned as we go through this writing process together. In addition to writing tips and techniques, I'll share what I've learned about getting an agent, writing a query, promotions, publishing, as well as the tears and joys as we go along this path together. 

Please comment as much as you care to, argue and debate. I'd love for this to become an open forum on the joys and sorrows of our writing lives. I expect this blog to help me as much as it may help any of you.

The first lesson I want to share is the process that I just finished --- revising. Importantly, this was the final revision. Early drafts had cleared up plot points, expanded character, added detail.  My most recent task was to pare down the novel to the desired, genre-specific length, of 100,000 words.

At the side of my desk, on a big pad of paper, I keep a list visible at all times, to remind me of what is essential for me to do at this stage of revision.


The Ten-Point Revision Strategy

1) Remove unnecessary exposition - RUE (resist urge to explain) - keep them guessing

2) Show don't tell

3) Know each character's motivation

4) Tighten dialogue - no direct answers

5) End chapter earlier - cut last paragraph

6) Kill adverbs

7) Tighten words

8) Describe through movement

9) Shorten as tension increases

10) Move story forward



Most of these steps are self-explanatory, but I'll describe each one in depth in future posts.

For now, keep on writing. 

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