Blog

Our ghostwriting blog posts.

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A story about the filthiest boxing gym in New York.

April 26, 2021April 26, 2021

So today I played a black and white movie I recorded from Turner Classic Movies’ 31 Days of Oscar. It was Somebody Up There Likes Read More...

Our new logo. What do you think?

April 2, 2021April 2, 2021

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The real-life word cops: Feds hoping to clarify language.

February 19, 2021February 19, 2021

Found in today’s Los Angeles Times. Who knew? Certainly not I. Apparently there is something called the Plain Writing Act and it Read More...

Novelists are moving into TV writers’ rooms.

February 11, 2021February 11, 2021

The Los Angeles Times published a story on February 11, 2021, focusing on the tale of novelist Sheri Holman. She’s Read More...

There’s one wild screenplay awaiting a talented writer.

December 10, 2020January 15, 2021

Think about the politics of the moment. There’s a divisive president whose management skills are in serious question. A raging Read More...

An interview with, and a new dark thriller novel by, Eric Shapiro.

October 8, 2020October 8, 2020

“Red Dennis,” Eric Shapiro’s new novel, is out. I haven’t read it yet but the reviews are excellent, which Read More...

We’re not taking dictation. Trust your professional.

September 15, 2020

Is the customer always right? Of course not. This is not 1950. Are we word slaves at the service of tyrannical bosses? Nope. If Read More...

A raunchy poem General George S. Patton, Jr., had his daughter recite in school.

August 15, 2020

For years, (Patton’s daughters) had been made to memorize a poem each week — Patton called it a “brain Read More...

The day Beirut, Lebanon, blew up: An example of outstanding writing.

August 5, 2020August 5, 2020

Here is an example of wonderfully descriptive writing. This is part of an article about the gigantic port explosion in Read More...

The Last Reporter in Town Had One Big Question for His Rich Boss.

I do love great writing. I found this today in the New York Times, written by Dan Berry. I thought I’d share a few paragraphs: Read More...

It took me fifteen years to discover I had no talent for writing, but I couldn’t give it up because by that time I was too famous.

Robert Benchley

You can always edit a bad page. You can’t edit a blank page.

Jodi Picoult

In Hollywood, the woods are full of people that learned to write but evidently can’t read. If they could read their stuff, they’d stop writing.

Will Rogers

I have a structured songwriting process. I start with the music and try to come up with musical ideas, then the melody, then the hook, and the lyrics come last.

John Legend

If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.

Oscar Wilde

Do you know what a playwright is? A playwright is someone who lets his guts hang out on the stage.

Edward Albee

Writers aren’t people exactly. Or, if they’re any good, they’re a whole lot of people trying so hard to be one person.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

What I loved most about calling myself a reporter was that it gave me an excuse to show up anyplace.

Jeanette Walls

I write the last line, and then I write the line before that. I find myself writing backwards for a while, until I have a solid sense of how that ending sounds and feels. You have to know what your voice sounds like at the end of the story, because it tells you how to sound when you begin.

John Irving

I do not over-intellectualize the production process. I try to keep it simple: Tell the damned story.

Tom Clancy

I have long felt that any reviewer who expresses rage and loathing for a novel is preposterous. He or she is like a person who has just put on full armor and attacked a hot fudge sundae or banana split.

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr

My own experience is that once a story has been written, one has to cross out the beginning and the end. It is there that we authors do most of our lying.

Anton Chekhov

It begins with a character, usually, and once he stands up on his feet and begins to move, all I can do is trot along behind him with a paper and pencil, trying to keep up long enough to put down what he says and does.

William Faulkner

Just don’t be boring!

Robert Liebmann

A true author, no matter the medium, is an artist with godlike knowledge of his subject, and the proof of his authorship is that his pages smack of authority.

Robert McKee

Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of, but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards.

Robert A. Heinlein

No one can write decently who is distrustful of the reader’s intelligence or whose attitude is patronizing.

E. B. White

Keep a small can of WD-40 on your desk — away from any open flames — to remind yourself that if you don’t write daily, you will get rusty.

George Singleton

Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.

E. L. Doctorow

Writing has laws of perspective, of light and shade, just as painting does, or music. If you are born knowing them, fine. If not, learn them. Then rearrange the rules to suit yourself.

Truman Capote