Musings of Two Creative Minds

Chekhov's Gun... There's an old trope that applies to theater and to writing.  It is credited to Anton Chekhov, author/playwright.  In a letter to a friend in 1889 he said, "One must not put a loaded rifle on the stage if no one is thinking of firing it."   Since then, the phrase "Chekhov's Gun" has become associated with the idea of not introducing something 'interesting' or 'irrelevant' into a piece, whether it be a stage play or a story, that is not actually poignant to the story.  If you put a gun into a scene, make sure someone uses it before the story is finished.  Don't just leave it lying there gathering dust.  Why?  If you were doing a story involving a killer like Jason Voorhees/Michael Myers, before anyone knew they were unkillable, and they were closing in on the hero/heroine in the room where the gun is in plain sight you'd have the person use it, right?  You wouldn't have them grab a curtain to try and ke...

This week I got 8 people lined up as "Beta-Readers" for my second novel "THE SHIP". For those not familiar with beta-readers, they are basically test readers for you book.  They will read the story and give you feedback on what they thought of it.  But what kind of feedback am I talking about? Well this may vary from writer to writer.  For me I'm looking for the following feedback: 1-Did they like the story? (this is a given, I have to know whether or not the story is even working for my readers in the first place) 2-How was the pacing?  Did the story drag a lot, or was it too-fast paced and hard to keep up with? 3-Were the characters likable and did you come to care about them?  Did they intrigue you?  Did you want to see more of them in the future?  (I'm working on an ongoing series where I will rotate some of the cast from time to time) 4-Spelling errors?  (I've done my best but some things will still slip past me so a few mo...

As you all know by now, I've been working on my second and third novels for a while now.  Mostly the second one which has been taking longer than I had anticipated.  At first I wondered why this was so?  I was much more experienced since my first go-round with completing a book.  I've learned a lot of the pitfalls and mistakes that can be made by now.  So I should be able to crank this puppy out in no time right?  WRONG! Now before I proceed, remember I'm only speaking for myself and what I'm experiencing in this process.  I'm still very much on the learning curve and I would love to hear some of your experiences down in the comments section below.  You may very well wind up giving insight to other issues I haven't thought about yet, which could be very helpful. Anyway, as I said before the process is taking longer than I'd hoped.  I originally figured I'd be laying down the plot for book four by now, while having book three 2/3's of the ...