Michael LaRocca

How To Plan Your Scientific Paper

How To Plan Your Scientific Paper By Michael LaRocca If I were sitting in the room talking to you, you'd fall asleep. No, wait, let me start over. If I were sitting in the room talking to you, and you didn't understand something I said, you co... Read >

Writing Your Novel Is The Easy Part

Writing Your Novel Is The Easy Part By Michael LaRocca "Michael, are you crazy?" Maybe. What about it. Sometimes an idea just comes out of nowhere and won't leave me alone until I write about it. So, I write about it. Then what? Isn't that... Read >

Teach Yourself Creative Writing

Teach Yourself Creative Writing By Michael LaRocca You can't learn to be creative. Either you're creative or you're not. And yet, I've taught literally thousands of students, in university classrooms, a class called Creative Writing. Is that hypocr... Read >

The Accidental Editor

The Accidental Editor By Michael LaRocca I've been editing from home for ten years. I did it part time for five years, then quit my "day job" and started working from home full time. I've done this from Hong Kong, mainland China, Thailand, and Vietnam... Read >

Writer School?

Here's something from my mailbag. "Dear Michael, do you need to do good in school if you want to be a writer? I stink at school and all my friends laugh at me when I tell them I want to write, but I'm serious." Followed by a sentence or two of "I need you... Read >

Car Horns

Let's pretend that you live in China. Perhaps not in my neighborhood, but in China. Let's also pretend that, unlike me, you own a car. A Volkswagen Santana, of course. Who do you honk the horn at? Well, you honk at everyone who's in your way, and who y... Read >

How Not To Get Published

If someone had told me in 2000 that I'd publish four books in 2001, I'd have called him an eejit. The last time I'd been published was 1989, and that doesn't count because I paid someone to do it. I'd long since given up on getting published again. In ... Read >

Apostrophe Usage Made Simple

According to one of my previous articles, whenever a Southerner says "Y'all watch this," get out of the way because those are probably the last words he will ever say. Well, I'm a Southerner. I used to live in the southeastern United States, but I move... Read >

Comma Usage Made Simple

Don't they drive you nuts? You can visit all the rules of style you want, and you can read all the books and articles you want. You'll still be confused. You'll see inconsistency. You'll see experts who don't agree with each other. And you'll pull out ... Read >

Common Writing Mistakes

Most books aren't rejected because the stories are "bad." They're rejected because they're not "ready to read." In short, minor stuff like typos, grammar, spelling, etc. I don't mean places where we, as authors, deliberately break the rules. Those are ... Read >

Find Some Readers!

The Internet will not replace traditional promotional efforts, but it can enhance them. Before I go into the Internet, I want to talk about the old-fashioned marketing methods, because they're still your best source of readers. ===== BOOKSTORES M... Read >

Why Do We Publish?

A major "character" in Mark Salzman's first autobiography is his father. Sometimes his father paints. But his father hates painting. He likes it when his painting is done. He likes having painted. But the act of painting itself is, in his opinion, a big p... Read >

How To Break Into Print Publishing

The big question. Do you submit directly to publishers, or do you find an agent who will do that for you? Based on anecdotal evidence I've heard, it can work either way. Many publishers refuse to read unagented submissions, but on the other hand Tom Clanc... Read >

Learning How To Write

As a student of Spanish, my goal was to think in Spanish. Skip the word-by-word translation so I'd have the necessary speed to speak and listen. I know words in Spanish that I'd be hard pressed to translate. Usually profanity, I confess. Chingow! For y... Read >