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J.J. Richardson
Jun 20, 20218 min read
The Best Mother
I learned over the years that our mother wasn't the meanest mother in the word, but the best.
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J.J. Richardson
May 31, 20214 min read
How to Get My Characters to Act
Few articles are written about how to get fictional characters to act. This article explains how to do it.
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J.J. Richardson
May 16, 20214 min read
Plastic Recycling
It didn’t take me more than a half-hour of casual Internet research to understand why we’re not recycling plastics like we wish we could.
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J.J. Richardson
Apr 6, 20212 min read
The Assumption Mark
The rules of English grammar provide us with question marks, exclamation marks, and quotation marks, but no assumption mark.
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J.J. Richardson
Mar 12, 20213 min read
The Future of Storytelling
Reciting tales has been a part of human life from the earliest discovered cave drawings until the present day.
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J.J. Richardson
Mar 2, 20212 min read
Copy That
In our lives do we seek to personify the attributes of the Great Creator or the Great Copier?
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J.J. Richardson
Feb 2, 20216 min read
A Brief History of Science Fiction
I offer only the fun bits. Enough for you to be popular at parties, but not sufficient to pass a college course in literature.
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J.J. Richardson
Jan 5, 20216 min read
How to Make Fiction Magical
A story that is not relatable is of little use to anyone no matter how clearly it is written.
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J.J. Richardson
Dec 14, 20204 min read
Date Your Spouse Regularly
Most of the time, your life is how you want it to be. You are the reason your life is the way it is.
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J.J. Richardson
Dec 8, 20204 min read
Don't Make Me Ask Why
Critiquing other people’s manuscripts of fictional works is fun for me because I start off with a declaration saying, “My comments are my...
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J.J. Richardson
Nov 21, 20202 min read
We've Talked About This
When I’m reading a story, and one character says to another, “We’ve talked about this,” my mind is thrown from the story.
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J.J. Richardson
Oct 31, 202010 min read
Role of a Just Government
Books written on the proper role of government fill entire library shelves. One could study the wisdom of the world’s greatest political...
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J.J. Richardson
Aug 16, 20206 min read
The Contrived Confrontational Argument
If you want your readers to hate your scenes, make every character behave foolishly.
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J.J. Richardson
Aug 10, 202014 min read
Why Don't Horror Movies End?
If you’ve spent any time studying the rules of writing fiction, you’ll know that stories must have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Howeve
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J.J. Richardson
Jul 22, 20206 min read
Top-7 Villains
Why am I having difficulty picking ten villains? I believe it's because fiction must be entertaining, and that includes its villains.
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J.J. Richardson
Jul 14, 20203 min read
Voice of an Angel
I suspect that angels can be far more terrifying than anything you have come across in your lifetime.
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J.J. Richardson
Jun 21, 20203 min read
The Candy Bar
On one occasion, I asked Mother if I could have one candy bar. Just one. To my surprise she said, "Yes."
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J.J. Richardson
Jun 21, 20203 min read
Three Most Important Words In Marriage
I suppose most people would say the most important words in marriage are, “I love you,” or “You’re right, dear,” or “Please, forgive me
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J.J. Richardson
May 17, 20205 min read
Top-10 Movies
My twenty-one-year-old son asked me to pick my ten favorite movies of all time. He didn’t tell me why, so I cannot tell you the reason.
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J.J. Richardson
Feb 19, 20205 min read
Slippery Smooth Writing
If you accelerate or decelerate unevenly while driving a vehicle, your passengers will feel jerked around. Don’t jerk your passengers.
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J.J. Richardson
Feb 16, 20205 min read
Unmoving Movie Trailers
The last forty times my wife and I watched movie trailers at a theater, she whispers to me, “They’ve shown too much.”
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J.J. Richardson
Jan 18, 20202 min read
Funny Rocks
Given the growing number of satirical websites that provide highly realistic information, I thought I would try my hand at such a...
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J.J. Richardson
Jan 18, 20207 min read
What is Good Fiction?
When your prose is effective, your readers will become someone else in a different time and place.
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