Getting Ready for National Novel Writing Month 2017

Posted by Rampant Coyote on October 23, 2017

November is “National Novel Writing Month” (NaNoWriMo, and yes, it’s a weird abbreviation). It’s the month for aspiring and amateur authors to kick their butts in gear and getting that draft done on that novel. (The professionals–the ones who make at least part of their living through writing–live it every month of the year.) So […]

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Writing: Word Count and Why Does It Matter?

Posted by Rampant Coyote on October 13, 2017

When you are talking about works of fiction, authors and editors often refer to word count. Why does the number of words matter? As a reader, I really don’t care. I’m not counting. Naturally, when you are taking things to print, page count matters, because that directly impacts the cost of production. In the digital […]

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Reminder: League of Utah Writers Fall Conference and VR Presentation

Posted by Rampant Coyote on October 5, 2017

At the League of Utah Writers Fall Conference tomorrow, I’ll be co-presenting an “ask the expert” class on Virtual Reality. This class will be in rooms 023/025 at 1:00 in the afternoon. There is still time to register, and it’s FREE on Friday. So… yay! The full conference (including Saturday and the awards banquet Saturday night) […]

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For my next trick: League of Utah Writers Fall Conference… Virtual Reality Class

Posted by Rampant Coyote on September 28, 2017

Now that Salt Lake Comic Con 2017 is in the rear-view mirror, we’ve got the League of Utah Writers Fall Conference coming up. If you are interested, you can sign up here: League of Utah Writers Fall Conference 2017 This is a two-day conference, but for the first time ever, the first day (Friday) can […]

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Easing Back into the Game

Posted by Rampant Coyote on September 11, 2017

The last year has been a little bit … nuts. Some of it was nuts in a good way.  The day job, however, took its toll. I’m no stranger to crunch, or (sadly) extended crunch. It came with the territory as a full-time game developer, and pretty much every programming job I’ve ever worked has […]

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Pulp is No Excuse

Posted by Rampant Coyote on September 6, 2017

Critics tend to use “pulp” as a qualitative descriptor. I think I’ve made my case enough times in the past that this simply isn’t true, unless you are one of those people who insists that newer is better, or that certain modern popular affectations are objectively superior to those of the past. For many decades, […]

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Plottorific – A tool from the Pulp Age made modern!

Posted by Rampant Coyote on August 8, 2017

When I first discovered Wallace Cook’s 1928 book, Plotto, my first thought was to turn this web of connected plot elements into a computer program.  Unfortunately, it was kind of a mess even to get my head around. I used it a few times on some short stories, however… if for no other reason than […]

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Creativity on Demand

Posted by Rampant Coyote on July 5, 2017

In the tech industry, there was an old joke dating back at least from the 1970s or 1980s about how “if it wasn’t for trade shows, we’d never get anything done.” Of course, it was funny because it wasn’t such a joke. In many companies, there’s a tremendous surge of productivity leading up to showing […]

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How to Write Pulp Fiction for Fun and Profit – Part 8

Posted by Rampant Coyote on June 29, 2017

This is the final part of my article series on writing pulp fiction. You know everything I do on the subject now. Seriously… I’m not that smart. I have co-taught this class with people who have a lot more experience and knowledge than I do. I’m more of the zealous newly-converted. As much as has […]

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How to Write Pulp Fiction for Fun and Profit – Part 7

Posted by Rampant Coyote on June 28, 2017

Now we’ve gone over how you write a pulp-style short story, but what do you do with it once you are done? And what if you want to write a novel or novella? Or what about a serial? Does any of this still apply? The short answers are: If it’s good enough, you sell it. […]

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How to Write Pulp Fiction for Fun and Profit – Part 6

Posted by Rampant Coyote on June 27, 2017

Now we are set to dive into outlining and writing at least a 6000 word story. If you have been following this article series from the beginning, then you’ve covered the foundations and may be ready to get cracking at drawing up an outline or just jumping into writing the thing. Today, we’re delving into the […]

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How to Write Pulp Fiction for Fun and Profit – Part 5

Posted by Rampant Coyote on June 26, 2017

Okay. To sum things up so far: We talked about what pulp fiction really was during its day, what people talk about when they are discussing contemporary pulp, a little bit about Lester Dent’s formula and brainstorming, and developing pulp-style plots and characters. That’s a lot of info. Now we’re going to drill down a […]

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How to Write Pulp Fiction for Fun and Profit – Part 4

Posted by Rampant Coyote on June 23, 2017

Hopefully you’ve brainstormed some cool ideas for your pulp adventure, and you are ready to commit it to paper! Now, whether you are a heavy plotter / planner, or write by the seat of your pants, you’ll need a good jumping-off point and you’ll probably want some kind of idea of where you are going. […]

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How to Write Pulp Fiction for Fun and Profit – Part 3

Posted by Rampant Coyote on June 22, 2017

We’ve now talked about the real history of the pulps, and what “contemporary pulp” means. I’ll assume here that this sounds awesome to you, and you want to write stories like this. At this point, if you are a veteran storyteller, you’ve got all you really need. But if you want some additional nuts-and-bolts tips from […]

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How to Write Pulp Fiction for Fun and Profit – Part 2

Posted by Rampant Coyote on June 21, 2017

Last time, we discussed what pulp fiction really was. It’s not what many people assume it is. The very breadth of what came out during the pulp era could make it easy at this point to simply throw one’s hands in the air and say, “So pulp fiction is just genre fiction!” and be done […]

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How to Write Pulp Fiction for Fun and Profit – Part 1

Posted by Rampant Coyote on June 20, 2017

Some folks have asked that I post my notes from the presentations I’ve done on writing pulp fiction. Now, I don’t pretend to be the expert on the subject. That’s why I grab a veteran modern-pulpist partner on these things… I figure between the two of us we might be able answer most questions. My […]

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