Category Archives: Blog

Everything is Connected

March 16, 2015 drewchial 4 Comments

We're all connected to Kevin Bacon, but how? — We’re all connected to Kevin Bacon, but how?

Why is it important for writers to keep their story elements connected?

Short answer: it makes everything easier to remember.

Long answer: brains are wired to link memories together. Our minds string lamps across people, places, and events. These associations help us trace our steps back through vast chasms of information.

One of the best ways for writers to get good word of mouth is to make their story easy to pitch. This doesn’t mean dumbing down the developments. It means giving readers clear links to reference. Continue reading Everything is Connected →

Blog, Writing

Use Your Embarrassment

March 9, 2015 drewchial 5 Comments

How do writers get their readers to identify with their characters?

One method is to make the character as basic as possible. This way the reader can fill them with their own details. Have you ever played a role playing game where you get to select your character’s class, hair, and armor? This is taking the default option: the bland blonde fair skinned male human, the rice cake of warrior classes. This option keeps the character so empty, the audience has no choice but to fill him with their own back story.

I’ve never been a fan of these Joe Everymen. I prefer characters with a little dirt on them. Continue reading Use Your Embarrassment →

Blog, Writing

Laundering Lines: Converting Excess Exposition into Dialogue

March 2, 2015 drewchial 5 Comments

My name is Drew Chial and I have a problem: I’m addicted to exposition. I talk too much and so does my writing. I need to learn to give people space to get a word in edgewise. I need to learn to do the same thing for my readers. I need to ask my friends more questions and give readers more room to fit their own imaginations in. I need to stop assuming my friends want to listen to me “tell it like it is” and stop thinking my readers won’t notice the information I show them.

Readers don’t like to be led by the hand. They’d rather come to their own conclusions. Continue reading Laundering Lines: Converting Excess Exposition into Dialogue →

Blog, Writing

Mixed Messages: How Corporate Writers Can Kill Their Darlings

February 23, 2015 drewchial 11 Comments

What Pickup Artists and Corporate Jargon have in Common

What would you think of a guy with hair plugs, a spray tan, and two bluetooth earpieces jutting out from his face like tusks? How about a man who walks into the club with a fur hat, black feather boa, and chains dangling across his pre-torn jeans? What about the guy posing with a gun and a tiger in his two seat sports car? Does it seem like they’re compensating for something?

Everyone wants to stand out, but someone who peacocks too much looks like they’re using their decorations to substitute for a personality. A pickup artist buried under pieces of flare tells the world there’s nothing really there. When a man walks into a bar with his head lost in a nest of fashion scarves everybody laughs behind his back, but when a company weighs down their job postings with unnecessary jargon no one challenges them. Continue reading Mixed Messages: How Corporate Writers Can Kill Their Darlings →

Blog, Shorts

Grieving in Reverse: A Horror Noir

February 16, 2015 drewchial 7 Comments

In 1895, Robert W. Chambers wrote a horror collection called The King in Yellow. Each entry was about a person who had the misfortune of reading a play called The King in Yellow, a play that had the power to drive each of them insane.

H.P. Lovecraft was so inspired by The King in Yellow that he fabricated his own tome of forbidden knowledge called the Necronomicon. The King in Yellow went on to inspire John Carpenter’s films In the Mouth of Madness and Cigarette Burns. Its influence can be felt in The Ring and most recently True Detective, which references the king, the yellow sign, and Carcosa by name.

While True Detective referenced Chambers’s symbolism, the show left his premise alone. I wanted to tell a detective story where the cursed text took center stage. Enjoy. Continue reading Grieving in Reverse: A Horror Noir →

Blog, Writing

Revenge Thriller Romance

February 9, 2015 drewchial 4 Comments

Why writers should avoid cheap romantic shorthand and what they can replace it with

Valentine’s Day is almost here.

The one day a year couples are expected to make the time for one another, to rekindle the old flame, to make bold romantic gestures. So naturally I’m thinking about revenge thrillers.

Ever notice how women are portrayed in these vengeance fantasies? A widower flashes back to his lost Lenore dancing, haloed in sunlight, a ballerina spinning on top of a music box in his mind. She is the picture of innocence, riding the hypnotic bliss of her man’s presence. She rolls in the grass, laughs at nothing, and smiles for the sake of smiling. Continue reading Revenge Thriller Romance →

Blog, Writing

What The X-Files Taught Me About Writing Scary Stories

February 2, 2015 drewchial 7 Comments

The X-Files defined dramatic science fiction in the 90s. It inspired fans to write spooky stories of their own. Rumor has it, the show is returning for a limited run. Mulder and Scully will wave their flashlights across our TV screens one last time.

I wanted to share what the show taught me about plot structure, characterization, and planting scares in an audience’s imagination. Continue reading What The X-Files Taught Me About Writing Scary Stories →

Blog, Writing

Don’t Spread Your Love Too Thin

January 26, 2015 drewchial 13 Comments

Sometimes a writer doesn't have enough love to go around. — Sometimes a writer doesn’t have enough love to go around.

The Flash Fiction Fling

A writer who flirts with several forms of writing at the same time is in a polyamorous relationship with each of them.

Flash fiction has no delusions about its role in the relationship. It knows the wordsmith is just looking for a ‘one write stand,’ a moment of passion in a micro medium. Flash fiction doesn’t mind when a writer forgoes first act foreplay and dives right into the action. It isn’t surprised by the premature punctuation before a resolution. It knows that once its 300 words are up the writer will be on to the next one. Wham bam publish ma’am. Continue reading Don’t Spread Your Love Too Thin →

Blog, Writing

#WriterConfessions: Volume 3

January 22, 2015 drewchial 3 Comments

Behold the continued chronicles of my lapses in lucidity, infractions against intelligence, and brain farts on brilliance. I, like every other connected confessor, have opted to admit my written wrongdoing in the form of a meme. Continue reading #WriterConfessions: Volume 3 →

Blog, Writing

Humble Thy Story

January 19, 2015 drewchial 8 Comments

Why writers shouldn’t put up an APPLAUSE sign in the middle of their story

Writers, have you ever wondered if your story was too self involved? Ask yourself, is the hero so funny that he laughs at his own jokes? Is every walk on role just as witty? Is your dialogue so clever that it defies belief? Continue reading Humble Thy Story →

Drew Chial

Category Archives: Blog

Everything is Connected

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Use Your Embarrassment

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Laundering Lines: Converting Excess Exposition into Dialogue

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Mixed Messages: How Corporate Writers Can Kill Their Darlings

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Grieving in Reverse: A Horror Noir

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Revenge Thriller Romance

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What The X-Files Taught Me About Writing Scary Stories

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Don’t Spread Your Love Too Thin

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#WriterConfessions: Volume 3

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Humble Thy Story

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Advice for writers, stories about the world they live in.

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Advice for writers, stories about the world they live in.