writing tips

Music in the Writing Process

September 9, 2012 By Brandon Leave a Comment

music, fiction, writing tips, writing process It’s always been my practice to have music playing while I write, but then again, there is always music playing in my home so that shouldn’t seem odd. For me, the written word, like a musical score, has a certain syncopation to it, a vibratory tone that underscores what you read as you read it.

Often my writing is described as lyrical, and this is something I (unknowingly) have striven for over the years as I put words down. The writing always had to not only sound right, but feel right too, and that feeling wasn’t just from word choice but from sentence & paragraph structure which lent itself to a vibratory undertone. [Read more...]

Filed Under: gay fiction, lgbt, Writing Tagged With: afflicted, fiction, listening to dust, literature, the value of rain, writing, writing tips

The Psychopath Test and Do Writers Fail?

August 20, 2012 By Brandon 3 Comments

I’m pretty sure most of you are familiar with the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders). I actually have a copy on my shelf as a reference book.

The DSM comes in quite handy for writing (as well as for figuring just WTF is really wrong with all your relatives.) You just know your ~~family members~~ characters are all listed in there somewhere, so it simply becomes one of those must-have reference books that you can’t be without.

But as a writer the DSM is also a bit of a Pandora’s box. Really, I kid you not. Who else besides a writer can get away with telling everyone they hear voices and spend months on end cooped up in a small room piled high with crumpled papers as the cigarette smoke curls around your head? Neatness hinders creativity you tell yourself, and this is a writer’s cave. Anything goes here, there are no rules except the sanctity of solitude, the smell of hot ink, and that goddamned two foot high DO NOT DISTURB sign on the door which must be obeyed. [Read more...]

Filed Under: lgbt, Writing Tagged With: humor, video, writing, writing tips

On Writing: Beginning with the End

April 13, 2012 By Brandon 2 Comments

writing, fiction, the hook The hook in music is the riff that captures the listener and pulls them into the song, the beat and the experience of the music. It’s what gets you humming the tune days later and what brings listeners back to the artist and the memories they experienced when that particular song was playing. It’s one of the things I love about music.

In writing it’s a little different, but no less important. Creating a hook is built on sentences, one leads to another, and another, and another. From my perspective, it’s more like a maze, the further a writer can get you into the maze, the harder it is for you to get out until you reach the end. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Writing Tagged With: authors, listening to dust, reader questions, the value of rain, writing, writing tips