BITE FIRST! –Ask Questions Later

Disjointed Jottings by Robert Smith (A.K.A. TyCobbsTeeth)

Your novel must open with bite.

One doesn’t hook a voracious reader, one creates a voracious reader by stimulating appetite.

I can tell you, as an avid reader, that I–so badly–want to be invited in. I crave an invitation that cannot be refused.
That opening must build appetite and by appetite I mean, the desire to read –felt as hunger. Appetite exists in all bibliophiles, and serves to regulate adequate literary intake to maintain creativity, imagination, and contentment.
Once you’ve stimulated that appetite, your reader wants to sit down at your table and devour your book. They’re hungry and they need to eat.

How do you stimulate appetite? Well, as a reader, I want — nay, I need something to grab my attention. If it’s properly presented the reader won’t just skim across it — their pupils should grow as they soak it in. You need a statement of…

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WE DON’T HAVE A CHOICE –They did.

As war and armed conflict rage around the globe, we who live in relatively peaceful countries, have a lot to remember --and a lot to be thankful for. Between November 9 and November 11, thoughts of the many brave and selfless souls, who have given life and limb for our freedom, will grace our consciousness, and at eleven …

Progress Feels Good

Day One of NaNoWriMo is almost behind us. October's apprehension, anxiousness, and anticipation all crashed into each other at the 11:59 starting-line --and waited. Halloween was a good distraction --it may be my favorite day of the year, but this year was different, I almost couldn't wait to get it behind me. You see --this is my first NaNoWriMo --this is …

Good Vibes II

Eclectic Blogger Girl

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Late Night Bites!

With a push of one finger, the button depressed, clicked, and popped back out. The bright glow from the monitor was sucked into blackness, leaving a few flickers on my retina, like flashes from a camera. Feeling defeated, I stood from my desk and shuffled slowly through the darkness, leaving the hum--from the hard drive spinning down, behind me. …

It was a dark and stormy night….

Last week I stumbled upon the site (competition) discussed in this old blog entry by the Eleventh Stack. I spent an hour reading through old entries–laughing, until I cried, and eventually I submitted my own.
Read their blog, surf the site, and maybe you’ll be enticed as well.
Cheers!
TyCobbsTeeth
-You may find my bite marks where you never even thought to look 😉

Eleventh Stack

Have you ever heard of the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest? It was founded in 1982 by the English Department of San Jose State University, partially in honor of Edward George Bulwer-Lytton (the novelist who composed the mother of all bad opening sentences) and partially because the creator, one Professor Scott Rice, thought it would be a relief to judge a writing contest with short entries (each entry is limited to one sentence in length). This year’s winner, submitted by Mr. Garrison Spick of Washington, D.C.,  was announced on August 14, 2008:

Theirs was a New York love, a checkered taxi ride burning rubber, and like the city their passion was open 24/7, steam rising from their bodies like slick streets exhaling warm, moist, white breath through manhole covers stamped “Forged by DeLaney Bros., Piscataway, N.J.”

Now if that’s not classic literature, I don’t know what is.

If you’d care…

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T-MINUS-27

That's right -- for those of you who know, and are -- for those of you who did not, but will -- and for those of you who are about to find out, and might -- this is your call to arms. You have less than twenty seven days -- a little more than three weeks. That time …

What the Hell is NaNoWriMo?

What's NaNoWriMo you ask? Ha! Well, I'm glad you did. NaNoWriMo (na-noh-RY-moh) is short for National Novel Writing Month and it's a fantastic event that has been running since 1999. The event is an annual 'internet-based' creative writing project that which runs for the month of November. NaNoWriMo challenges participants to write 50,000 words of a …