Top Tips for Writing Novels and Life Lessons

Dec 16, 20172 min read

Ten Percent of our Brain?

If you're trying to loose weight, you'll be happy to know your brain consumes about 20% of your daily input of calories.

J.J. Richardson

Oct 14, 20174 min read

Beauty Actually Is Skin Deep

“If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?"

J.J. Richardson

Sep 12, 20174 min read

The Sock-Drawer Problem

My wife buys socks for me. In fact, I have three brands of white socks in my sock drawer.

J.J. Richardson

Sep 3, 20178 min read

Self Hypnosis: The Bigger Picture

Self-hypnosis is so natural and commonplace that everyone passes through the state at least twice every day.

J.J. Richardson

Jul 20, 201712 min read

How to Write a Novel

I’ve read hundreds of websites and more than twenty books meant to help authors write novels. Most of them didn’t help me.

J.J. Richardson

May 19, 20174 min read

Top 10 Tips for Self-Editing

Gertrude Stein famously wrote, “The artist’s job is not to succumb to despair, but to find an antidote for the emptiness of existence.”

J.J. Richardson

May 5, 20174 min read

Gorgeous Curves

Your life will be benefited by a good understanding of these three curves.

J.J. Richardson

Feb 3, 20174 min read

Useless

One of the greatest contributors to our sense of self-worth is how useful we are in the situations in which we find ourselves.

J.J. Richardson

Jan 28, 20174 min read

Hope

Numerous studies have shown that hope has a greater impact on happiness than standard of living.

J.J. Richardson

Jan 14, 20173 min read

Hiking and Writing Fiction

Hiking is like writing fiction. Once you agree with me on this point, your writing will improve. So will your hiking.

J.J. Richardson

Dec 17, 20162 min read

You Are the Expert

Your fans want to know that you know what you’re doing.

J.J. Richardson

Nov 29, 201610 min read

Avoid Clichés Like the Plague

Isn’t it true that many Hollywood movies lately are remakes, sequels, or based on fifty-year-old comic books?

J.J. Richardson

Nov 27, 20168 min read

When Is It Good Enough?

I read somewhere that "a good short story with one extra word is a bad short story."

J.J. Richardson

Nov 17, 20164 min read

Journey of 1,000 Interesting Steps

With a bit of skewed math, we can squeeze a decent novella out of one thousand sentences.

J.J. Richardson

Nov 13, 20162 min read

The Circle of Knowledge

Your uncertainty will grow faster than your increase in knowledge.

J.J. Richardson

Nov 4, 20163 min read

The Page Game

I have played a game for years that has helped transform my writing from banal lethargy to transcendent elegance.

J.J. Richardson

Nov 3, 20168 min read

High Standards

Most people feel queasy when standing close to the edge of a tall cliff. This is a good thing.

J.J. Richardson

Oct 16, 20164 min read

Just Be Yourself

In my youth, no advice was more infuriating and demeaning to me than the three-word lecture, "Just be yourself."

J.J. Richardson

Oct 9, 20163 min read

Reducing Fractions

By the time I was taking second-semester calculus in college I was sick of reducing fractions.

J.J. Richardson

Oct 7, 20164 min read

Killing Repetition

In polite company, when people say, “Avoid doing such-and-such,” what they really mean is, “Never do that or you’re wretched filth.”

J.J. Richardson

Oct 4, 20162 min read

Buttermilk

I reached for the closest glass and poured into my mouth a volume of the white fluid large enough to fill my cheeks.

J.J. Richardson

Oct 2, 20164 min read

Who Am I?

Are there times when adversity around you is so incomprehensible you wonder if it is you who has everything wrong?

J.J. Richardson

Oct 1, 20163 min read

Receiving Criticism

Recall the adage, the customer is always right?

J.J. Richardson

Sep 27, 20162 min read

What It's Like to Write a Novel

No one except novelists knows what it’s like to write a novel.