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Books by D.J. Butler
Monthly Archives: July 2011
The Essential Thing
The essential thing is conflict. Any story is at its heart the recounting of some struggle. Someone struggles against someone or something else in order to achieve some objective. A story without conflict is not worth reading. A scene without … Continue reading
Posted in How to Write
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Ten Famous Writers
…and the weird stuff they did while writing. I’ve done all of this. Okay, not all of it.
Posted in How to Write
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Writing to the Punchline (Bonuses: Horror and Dialect!)
The thing had eyes now, one in its forehead and one in its cheek, each formed by a dull silver Pennsylvania shilling and each spluttering and emitting a foul yellow smoke as the silver burned its way into the clay … Continue reading
Posted in How to Write, Writing Sample
Tagged Clay Monsters, Dialect, Horror, Witchy Eye, Writing Visually
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Dialect and Accent
This is simple. You don’t exactly reproduce on paper what any of your characters sounds like, because you would write incomprehensible gibberish all the time. So when you go to represent the speech of a character with a regionally or … Continue reading
1000 Pageviews
Special thanks to the Oregon Department of Corrections for letting Mel and Paco have access to the Internet.
Posted in News
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Unbanned
I’m not categorically against restricting the freedom of speech, but this just seems idiotic.
Exile Is Broken
So yesterday I finished reading the (as yet untitled) sequel to E.J. Patten’s excellent middle reader garbagepunk action epic horror, Return to Exile. Since I’ve been talking a bit about how novelists have to build a world that is in … Continue reading
Posted in How to Write
Tagged E.J. Patten, Patrick Carman, Return to Exile, Story Monkeys
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Watch Out, Here She Comes
My friend (and sister) Sara, showing off some sinister-heroic chops. Can a YA paranormal adventure romance franchise be far behind? Bonus: Sam! He is working on a novel about a normal guy who, to his surprise, wins the Grand Lottery … Continue reading
Crap, Man, a Trick!
(Perhaps he’s hidden a clue in his name. Clever people often do that.) I finished The Dark Hills Divide, book one of the Land of Elyon series by Patrick Carman, over the weekend. I recommend it (middle reader fantasy), and … Continue reading
More Cool Dialect
And if I haver… Huh? Young Craig and Charlie Reid. And young Johnny Depp and Mary Stuart Masterson. And young… that other dude. What’s with the bass player, though? At about, say, 2:00…
Posted in Music, Song
Tagged Benny and Joon, Dialect, I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles), The Proclaimers
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