Hey, how’s it going? I’m Pat Marcello and I’ve written 10 books for publishers like ABC-Clio, Lucent, and Andrews-McMeel. I haven’t been writing for magazines or writing books for years, but I do write every day. I am a writer. And I have writerly thoughts all the time — some twisted, some normal. And so, I’d like to share a little of each with you. Enjoy!

Without Conflict… No Story

Yep, it's true. If you don't have a conflict, you don't have a story. You need a problem for your character(s) to solve, and if it doesn't exist, what you have is a long narrative that nobody wants to read. Image via Wikipedia Think about every story you've ever read:...

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Writing Fiction: What Is Conflict?

OMG... The toaster just caught on fire! What's worse is that Jack is working on his computer in his bedroom. He let the toaster do its work while he did something else, and so, he doesn't even know there's a fire.  The dog starts barking, but by the time Jack goes to...

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Research Isn’t Just for Books…

Image via Wikipedia We've been talking about research, why you need to do it and where some good places are for doing it. But have we talked about real, live research? This comes in the form of interviewing experts and just plain good old observation. I've mentioned...

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