by Melinda Snodgrass | Apr 6, 2020 | About Writing
You become invested in the characters you create for your books and even scripts if a character becomes a recurring character on a show. I had that happen on Reasonable Doubts, and it was cool. It was very hard for me to write the end of the relationship between that character and Marlee’s character. I got a bit teary as I typed. It is said that when Dumas killed Porthos in The Vicomte of Bragelonne: Ten Years Later he laid down his pen, unable to continue so great was his grief. I can...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Nov 23, 2019 | About Writing
I wanted to write and explain why I have reached this decision after spending my entire career as what some have referred to as a “New York author”. First allow me to give a huge thank you to the publishers, Tor and Titan in particular, and the editors, Patrick Nielsen-Hayden, Stacy Hill, Diana M. Pho, Miranda Jewess, Cath Trechman who have supported and whose insightful comments have improved my work over the years. I have great respect and sympathy for the situation in which they, and in...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Aug 15, 2019 | About Writing, TV & Movies
I love Star Wars. I know that probably sounds treasonous since I wrote for Star Trek, but truthfully Trek in its later iterations was just too clean, too antiseptic, too boring, frankly, for my tastes. Give me the world of rogues and scoundrels, Hutt mafia bosses, pirates, and cantinas that don’t look like a nightclub on Fifth Avenue; give me some grunge. Oh and space wizards, can’t forget the space wizards. Star Wars also has Darth Vader, Alexsandr Kallus, Kanan Jarrus, Han Solo, Hera...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Oct 20, 2018 | About Writing
I’ve been reading this series and really enjoying the books. Then last night I finished up the third book and my head exploded and not in a good way. These books are written in first person and I like first person when it’s done well and this was done very well. However, there are some hard and fast rules about first person that make it challenging. A lot of beginning writers start writing in first thinking it will be easier. It’s not. Here are some of the limitations to first person. You...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Sep 14, 2018 | About Writing
Too many characters in a book can overburden the story and truthfully every time you add a character who is a point of view you are adding between one hundred and a hundred and fifty pages to your manuscript. In my Imperials Saga I’ve had four characters in two of the books which for me is a lot of characters. I usually keep it to two or three at the most. But now I am working on the final Imperials book, and it struck me that I might want to have a POV from Boho’s chief of staff...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Jun 17, 2018 | About Writing, Blog
No, this one is not about #MeToo or complaining about suits or agents or the thousand other aggravations that accompany working in the industry. This is an actual writing tip. Truth is I became a much better novelist after I spent a few years in Hollywood writing scripts. So here is one of those things I learned. It’s called Hanging a Lantern on It, and it works like this. If something is likely to bump a reader or a viewer your best course of action is to forthrightly acknowledge...
