Blog

Our ghostwriting blog posts.

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“Sudden unintended acceleration” — Tesla’s excellent crisis management response.

January 23, 2020January 23, 2020

In January, 2020, a fellow who “short sells” Tesla stock filed a complaint with the National Highway Transportation Read More...

A moment of silence, please, for a giant of a writer.

January 9, 2020July 21, 2023

Buck Henry, the legendary screenwriter, has died. With Mel Brooks, he co-created Get Smart (1965-1970). He adapted the Read More...

Crisis management: How the Hallmark Channel handled a public relations nightmare.

December 16, 2019December 16, 2019

The Hallmark Channel messed up big time. Several days ago, they aired a commercial from a wedding-planning website that shows Read More...

The Washington Post’s neologism contest winners.

December 2, 2019July 21, 2023

I came across this today and broke up laughing. These are seriously clever! Thanks to the Washington Post. I wasn’t aware of Read More...

Two examples of exceptionally vivid writing.

November 3, 2019

I happen to be blessed (or cursed) with the sort of imagination that enables me to create a vivid interior world inspired by words. I Read More...

The naked screenwriter.

August 23, 2019July 21, 2023

At the moment, all my screenwriters are busy but the work requests keep flowing in. One new client needs a writer capable of creating a Read More...

You’ve heard of writer’s block. But have you heard of reader’s block?

August 5, 2019July 21, 2023

I found this in the August 2nd, 2019, New York Times. Fun reading…if you’re not suffering from reader’s block: Read More...

Salesmanship.

May 27, 2019July 21, 2023

On Friday, May 17th, 2019, I lost my balance on a concrete step in my garage, fell and fractured my left leg, near the hip. I spent Read More...

Writers comment on other writers and the writing profession.

May 25, 2019July 21, 2023

It’s a page on this website, located here. I’ve been collecting informative and witty comments from writers for years. Read More...

Fortunately, writers don’t often have to deal with jerk clients. But sometimes they do.

May 23, 2019July 21, 2023

Today, I spoke with a potential client who has a fictional story he wanted to turn into both a novel and a screenplay. He and I chatted Read More...

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

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

I don’t care if a reader hates one of my stories, just as long as he finishes the book.

Roald Dahl

If the sex scene doesn’t make you want to do it — whatever it is they’re doing — it hasn’t been written right.

Sloan Wilson

My aim is to put down what I see and what I feel in the best and simplest way I can tell it.

Ernest Hemingway

You may be able to take a break from writing, but you won’t be able to take a break from being a writer.

Stephen Leigh

A blank piece of paper is God’s way of telling us how hard it to be God.

Sidney Sheldon

Editor: A person employed by a newspaper, whose business it is to separate the wheat from the chaff, and to see that the chaff is printed.

Elbert Hubbard

When writing a novel, that’s pretty much entirely what life turns into: “House burned down. Car stolen. Cat exploded. Did 1,500 easy words, so all in all it was a pretty good day.”

Neil Gaiman

Ever heard of a carpenter not going to work because he has “carpenter’s block”? If a writer can’t write, it’s because he doesn’t really want to, he isn’t ready to get it on paper or he’s just plain lazy.

Chet Cunningham

A writer without interest or sympathy for the foibles of his fellow man is not conceivable as a writer.

Joseph Conrad

If my poetry aims to achieve anything, it’s to deliver people from the limited ways in which they see and feel.

Jim Morrison

The reason 99% of all stories written are not bought by editors is very simple. Editors never buy manuscripts that are left on the closet shelf at home.

John Campbell

Every writer with half a brain knows to surround himself or herself with editors who are smarter, far more articulate and infinitely better looking.

Chris Claremont

Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don’t see any.

Orson Scott Card

Reading and weeping opens the door to one’s heart, but writing and weeping opens the window to one’s soul.

M. K. Simmons

To me, movies and music go hand in hand. When I’m writing a script, one of the first things I do is find the music I’m going to play for the opening sequence.

Quentin Tarantino

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

It’s an accepted fact that all writers are crazy; even the normal ones are weird.

William Goldman