AspenHouse

S34E4 – What’s in a (Book’s) Name?

If reading makes you smart, then how come when you read a book they have to put the title of the book on top of every single page? Does anyone get halfway through a book, [and ask] what the hell am I reading? – Brian Regan

S34E3 – What’s in a (Pen)Name?

‘Tis but thy name that is my enemy;
Thou art thyself, though not a Montague…. O, be some other name!
What’s in a name? That which we call a rose,
By any other name would smell as sweet. – William Shakespeare

S34E1 – The Lessons We’ve Learned

Writing is a demanding profession and a selfish one. And because it is selfish and demanding, because it is compulsive and exacting, I didn’t embrace it. I succumbed to it. – Rod Sterling

S33E9 – Avoiding the Info Dump: The Villain Monologue

I’ll turn him into a flea, a harmless, little flea, and then I’ll put that flea in a box, and then I’ll put that box inside of another box, and then I’ll mail that box to myself, and when it arrives, I’ll smash it with a hammer! It’s brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, I tell you! Genius I say! Or, to save on postage, I’ll just poison him with this.- Yzma, Emperor’s New Groove

S33E8 – Avoiding the Info Dump: Within Dialogue

Readers take in dialogue one thought at a time. A frequent mistake of beginners is to combine thoughts, which may be suitable for other forms of writing but not for dialogue. Another mistake is speechifying. Three sentences at a time is tops, yet many beginners write speeches that go on and on. – Sol Stein