Search My Posts
-
Get My Mailings
Free E-book
Sign up for my mailings to get discounts, private updates, and early access to my publications—plus a free copy of my 1980 short story, The Hermit, my first serious literary work.I will not share your e-mail address with anyone for any reason, and you can unsubscribe at any time.
Help Me Create
Click the button below to see a video of me talking about my work, and about why my patrons are so very important:
Paul Recommends
Scrivener is the go-to app for writers of all kinds, used every day by best-selling novelists, screenwriters, non-fiction writers, students, academics, lawyers, journalists, translators and more (including yours truly). Scrivener won't tell you how to write—it simply provides everything you need to start writing and keep writing.
My aunt, Jackie Lloyd, is writing a rather unusual book: My Imaginary Dog, based on a series of fantasies she had while walking the steep seaside slopes of Deep Cove here in North Vancouver.
She has asked me to help edit it, and has even launched a blog to talk about the whole adventure. I think the dog, Bear, will also be giving his two cents' worth there.
Buy My Books
Also available at:
Also available at:
Also available at:
Also available at:
Follow Me, Like Me
-
Recent Posts
- A dropout without portfolio
- The one less traveled by
- In search of the great 19th-century novel
- Nectar, anyone?
- Writing about reading
- Are you to be one of the new poor?
- Earth at the crossroads
- Slaying Dragons by Charles D. Fraune: demons, demons everywhere
- Before Machiavelli, there was the Bible
- Is it a crime to kill a fictional character?
Blog Categories
- astrology (14)
- book reviews (131)
- film reviews (17)
- lifewriting (3)
- opening sentences (1)
- Paul's biography (1)
- prose sketches (49)
- Quora posts (1)
- reading (9)
- The Age of Pisces (2)
- the odyssey (27)
- thoughts (156)
- Uncategorized (2)
- vocabulary (2)
- writer's notes (19)
Blog Tags
ashleigh aston moore astrology canadian broadcasting corporation economics Education epic fiction historical fiction History Homer how astrology works ilya woloshyn jay ziegler Joseph Campbell landmark books liberal education michael chechik Mortimer J. Adler Omni-Films Paul's life Philosophy pilot episode pilot script Poetry politics psychology reading ryan reynolds scriptwriting storytelling The Age of Pisces the Bible the environment the Great Books the Great Ideas the jellybean odyssey the odyssey odyssey the world situation tony sampson tv series warren easton Wealth what's wrong with neil? writing writing for tvMy Twitter Timeline
More About Truth of the Python
More About The Mission
Learn more about The Mission, book 1 of The Age of Pisces, from my previous blog:
My Books on Goodreads
Archives
- November 2022 (1)
- October 2022 (1)
- July 2022 (1)
- June 2022 (1)
- April 2022 (1)
- August 2021 (2)
- May 2021 (3)
- March 2021 (2)
- February 2021 (2)
- November 2020 (2)
- October 2020 (2)
- September 2020 (2)
- August 2020 (5)
- July 2020 (3)
- June 2020 (4)
- May 2020 (2)
- April 2020 (5)
- March 2020 (6)
- February 2020 (5)
- December 2019 (1)
- November 2019 (4)
- October 2019 (1)
- September 2019 (2)
- August 2019 (3)
- April 2019 (2)
- March 2019 (1)
- February 2019 (1)
- January 2019 (6)
- December 2018 (6)
- November 2018 (5)
- October 2018 (9)
- September 2018 (6)
- August 2018 (7)
- July 2018 (3)
- June 2018 (1)
- May 2018 (2)
- April 2018 (2)
- March 2018 (2)
- February 2018 (1)
- January 2018 (1)
- December 2017 (3)
- November 2017 (2)
- October 2017 (2)
- September 2017 (2)
- August 2017 (3)
- July 2017 (3)
- June 2017 (1)
- May 2017 (1)
- April 2017 (4)
- March 2017 (1)
- August 2016 (1)
- January 2016 (1)
- November 2015 (2)
- October 2015 (3)
- September 2015 (1)
- August 2015 (2)
- June 2015 (3)
- May 2015 (4)
- April 2015 (5)
- March 2015 (1)
- January 2015 (3)
- November 2014 (4)
- October 2014 (2)
- September 2014 (2)
- August 2014 (2)
- May 2014 (2)
- April 2014 (2)
- March 2014 (3)
- February 2014 (5)
- January 2014 (3)
- December 2013 (4)
- November 2013 (3)
- October 2013 (3)
- September 2013 (4)
- August 2013 (4)
- July 2013 (6)
- June 2013 (4)
- May 2013 (6)
- April 2013 (3)
- March 2013 (5)
- February 2013 (7)
- January 2013 (9)
- December 2012 (9)
- November 2012 (11)
- October 2012 (4)
- September 2012 (2)
- August 2012 (1)
- July 2012 (3)
- June 2012 (3)
- May 2012 (4)
- April 2012 (3)
- March 2012 (4)
- February 2012 (5)
- January 2012 (4)
- December 2011 (8)
- November 2011 (8)
- October 2011 (12)
- September 2011 (18)
- August 2011 (9)
- July 2011 (16)
- June 2011 (12)
Tag Archives: archetypes
They call me Mister Vitols
I don’t write every day, but I do read every day. The reading and processing of books is the central activity of my life. I am a student before I am anything else. I say this not from a sense … Continue reading
creating characters, part 5: combining archetypes
I’ve been sharing my discoveries about the art of character creation in storytelling. The idea here is to build characters from the inside out, to make vital, interesting characters from scratch instead of trying to create characters based purely on … Continue reading
creating characters, part 4: story archetypes
In part 3 I described how to start building a character by snapping together 2 different kinds of archetype: a heroic archetype, using the book The Complete Writer’s Guide to Heroes & Heroines: Sixteen Master Archetypes by Tami D. Cowden, … Continue reading
creating characters, part 3
Welcome to another installment of my character-creation process for storytelling. I started out by calling the series “creating characters in epic fiction,” but really I’m talking about creating characters in general, so I have shortened my title accordingly. I would … Continue reading
creating characters in epic fiction, part 2
Character creation is one of the most difficult and demanding tasks in the art of storytelling. Some people have a talent for it—I think Charles Dickens was one of these—while the rest of us have to stretch out a thinner … Continue reading
The Complete Writer’s Guide to Heroes & Heroines by Tami D. Cowden, Caro LaFever, & Sue Viders: “people power” for writers
The Complete Writer’s Guide to Heroes and Heroines: Sixteen Master Archetypes by Tami D. Cowden My rating: 4 of 5 stars This apparently self-published handbook of character archetypes adds a powerful tool to the writer’s kit. As I recall, this … Continue reading
The Wizard of Oz: birth of a Girl Adventurer
How many times have you seen The Wizard of Oz? I’m going to guess that I’ve seen it a dozen times. Kimmie, my wife, reckons that she’s seen it at least 20 times. I haven’t the slightest doubt that there are … Continue reading
archetypes r us
Yesterday in my post reviewing Sacred Contracts by Caroline Myss I said that I had much more to say on the topic. Maybe I’ll try to make a start now. Something I didn’t mention in my review was that for … Continue reading
