John Luther, Writer

The actor is first person to get blamed for a scene that falls flat. This is unfair.
Few things can ruin a scene like a poorly timed line. I was reminded of this a few nights ago while watching a performance of my own play. More than a few of my lines were real turkeys. My [...]

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Thanks again to the cast and everybody at Confetti Stage for the hard work they put into the 4th Annual Short Play Festival, and into my little play in particular. The script is now online (PDF, 48K) for those who asked to read it.

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The writer’s worst but constant companion. I got another one yesterday for a short story.
The summer after I graduated college I worked for one day selling frozen fish door-to-door. The company assigned me to spend my first week training with their star salesman. I can’t remember his name so I’ll call him Don.
I met him [...]

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From a Harvard Magazine interview with Ian Frazier:
“I like to revise and retype,” he says. “A lot of bad writing is because people don’t have to retype. I like retyping.”
This raises a question I have often pondered: Has anyone written a novel that’s worth a damn on a computer?
The evidence is scarce.

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I’m still working on stories that I started in college. I graduated in 1993.
Today I dug out one that I drafted in 2003. It’s “complete” in the sense that it has a beginning, a middle and an end, but it’s far from finished. My revision history shows that I’ve worked on it every year since [...]

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All good writing shares a common goal: make yourself understood while holding the reader’s attention. That’s about it.
[Update]: If my definition is too simplistic for you, Jonathan Morrow has 21 more ideas.

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I hesitate to bother with this subject, but I think a lot of people are getting bad advice about submitting unsolicited manuscripts for publication.
Note the key word, unsolicited. If you already have a relationship with an editor, by all means use whatever format they ask for.
If your work is good, it will get published. No [...]

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The play is cast, rehearsals start this Friday, so I guess it’s time to announce that The Confetti Stage in Albany, New York will present my one-act play “A Terminal Case” as part of their Fourth Annual Short Play Festival. Very exciting. More details as things progress.

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Yet another book about irrationality:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121426594353898543.html
I’ll skip it, thanks. I’ve read & enjoyed Dan Ariely’s book and the Thaler/Sunstein treatise on the topic, but that’s enough for me. Most people who spend time among human beings don’t need a book to challenge efficient market theory.

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Turns out he was just a Regular Guy. I find that comforting.

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