My ABC's of Writing: Brought to You by the Letter B

A is down, now we move onto the next letter in our journey through my writing alphabet.

Thank you, dear beta readers. You catch our inconsistencies, point out when our plots don't make sense, deride our convenient twists and cardboard characters, and somehow manage to catch every backward quotation mark and poorly-used verb, adverb, and conjunction.

Without you, we'd turn in sub-par work rife with spelling errors, annoying characters, outdated pop culture references, and plot holes big enough to drive a Peterbilt through.

Of course, sometimes we still ignore you.

A is for AGENT

My ABCs of Writing: Brought to You by the Letter A

I wanted to do something different over the next few weeks, and this is what I came up with: my own writing "alphabet." Each day for the next month or so, I'll reveal a new letter of my personal writing ABC's accompanied by a graphic allowing me to use my much-loved "crappy photoshopping" tag.

Today's writing lesson is brought to by the letter "A."

Ah, the agent. We poke, we prod, we query, we stalk. We usually fail. Yet, we keep trying in the hope that you, dear agent, will recognize our obvious talent and feel flattered, nay, privileged, that we chose you as the professional conduit for our work.

One day, we tell ourselves, you will need us just as much as we need you.

We're still waiting...

The Killing Joke: Knowing When a Character Has to Go

I killed a friend this month; I murdered him in cold blood.

There is no evidence, no one will ever catch me. I left behind no murder weapon. The William Petersens of the world will find no forensic evidence to deconstruct.

That is, unless they revert to previous drafts.

Please, put down your phone and stop dialing 911. No one is in mortal danger, I'm not a (total) psychopath, and the person I killed doesn't exist.

While going over one of my books with a beta reader, we stumbled upon an incredible discovery: a character in my book needed to die. It wasn't because we're masochists who enjoy indiscriminately killing people. We realized the character stopped serving the story at a specific point and would greatly improve another character's development arc by sacrificing himself.

I'm a sensitive guy by nature--yes, I realize that's a problem in the Big, Bad World of Writing--but I can't say I've been too affected by killing off a character in any of my stories. In some of my works, I had an inkling a certain character would pass on or meet a tragic end. I've never really just "offed" a character in midstream like I did for this book.

When I first considered my reader's suggestion to kill off the character, I hesitated.

Okay, I'm lying.

I protested. Vehemently.

"There's no way I can kill that guy!" I told him. "I need him for the sequel!"

Then I wondered: is that the best reason I have? Will there even be a sequel? How does keeping him alive serve the story?

Soon, the evidence began mounting: the character needed to go. My reader suggested doing it halfway through the story, but that didn't feel right. I wrote the scene toward the last quarter or so of the book to show how high the stakes had been raised.

Something strange happened when it came to the big moment. This character I'd come to love, this character who'd provided so many moments of levity and humor had to meet his maker. And so he did. I felt a lump in my throat. You see, I had grown attached to this character. He had an understated warmth to him and a dry sense of humor. He was a caretaker who spent much of his life looking after others. He had one last gift to give.

His life.

To teach a lesson.

To show a protege there were battles he could not win.

To help a young man grow up and embrace his destiny.

I can never forget the impact of writing those words, of giving that character a fitting, noble death.

It felt awful.

It felt awesome.

It felt right.

I like to read my writing aloud to get a sense of the rhythm and pacing of the words. Every time I come back to that scene, my throat catches.

And because of that, I know it was the right thing to do.

Just not the easy one.

Cincinnati Reds and Superheroes

My very first book is called Seven. I originally wrote it four years ago, when I didn't know much about writing and knew nothing about the publishing world. Years ago, I thought that book was my ticket; it would propel me to the top.

So I entered it into the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest.

Didn't even make it past the first round.

Yeah, I was bummed. But that book never stood a chance (read why here). I didn't understand that at the time. Now I do.

That's called learning.

I've learned a lot about writing and publishing in the intervening years. I'm no expert, but I'm a much better writer now than I was four years ago. If I didn't get any better--and I didn't realize I was getting better--I don't think I would've retooled my blog and kept writing.

I now have a business card. It's a simple thing, but I took the step of ordering them. I'm not going to call myself a brand--I'm a person and a writer, not a brand--but branding is an indelible part of what writers do. That's why I have the business card.

Early on in my career, I seem to have hitched my star to the world of superhero fiction. My first published story was a superhero story. Four of my first six published works were superheroic in nature (and a fifth was about a vigilante, which could certainly fall in that category). Over the last two months, I've devoted considerable time and energy to polishing a book I don't think a traditional publisher would want to touch because it's a quirky superhero book. I thought maybe I'd "ebook it." Maybe I still will...I haven't decided.

Let me circle back now to Seven, the story of a genetically-engineered baseball player. When I wrote the first draft, the Cincinnati Reds were awful. They hadn't made a playoff appearance since 1995 (excepting a one-game playoff in 1999). I built that book around the Reds' recent history of lackluster performances, but now that sentiment no longer sticks. Cincy made the postseason last year.

In its current form, Seven is no longer viable. The novel needs major rewrites as it stands, but now I face the daunting task of scrapping the idea of setting the book in the Queen City. Perhaps I should focus on a franchise much more snake-bitten than my beloved Reds. And I could stay in the division by choosing either the Pirates or the Cubs.

A very early draft predating the mad rush to finish an Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award entry set the book in Chicago, with the owners so desperate for a winner, they cloned a baseball player. The basic framework of that idea still exists and most of the characters would still fit with minimal tweaking.

One "character" wouldn't survive, however, and that's the city of Cincinnati. It would be supplanted by Chicago.

I'll have to think about this some more.

Then again, maybe I should just forget Seven entirely and concentrate on Timey Dancer!

Hold Me Closer Timey Dancer

Inspired by a great little exchange in a Facebook post today, my brother, a friend, and I came up with a killer plot for a book: a Chippendale's dancer named Studicus must travel back in time to save Ancient Rome.

My friend came up with that hook, my brother came up with the title Timey Dancer, and I came up with the tagline, "Marcus Aurelius had a dream that was Rome. This is not it."

So I took a few minutes today and dreamed up a cover for this book.

I'll start the outline tomorrow.

I'm only half-kidding.

Oh, the humanity!

I'm in a quandary.

Sinking in a quagmire.

And I can't figure out what I want!

For the last month or so, I've been heavily involved in revising my book I, Crimsonstreak. No pun intended, but I considered it the red-headed stepchild of the two superheroic books I've penned (or is it typed?). I'm starting to reconsider that a bit now. I think the book has a certain sense of polish to it, a feeling almost of near-completion.

If I really look, I know I can find a misplaced comma or a word I'd like to replace. But for the most part, I feel the novel has reached that indefinable point where it's time to send it out. So I will.

Actually, I already have. I'm trying a couple of small presses first because it feels like the right thing to do at the moment. It guarantees no success and doesn't even present any better odds than cold querying.

I'll give it a month or so and if I can't find a home for Crimsonstreak, then I may do what thousands of other writers have done and sail straight for the great undiscovered country of electronic books. I tell myself this is prescience and not impatience.

Yet, I wonder...if my chances of landing an agent are low...and my chances of finding a publisher are equally low...how am I to stand out in the Great Unknown of this strange, new ebook world?

I have no idea.

Sure, I've talked to a couple of people. They tell me to build my brand. They tell me to get the book out there in the wild and flog it, flog it, flog it until I will sales to happen. They say to guest blog, run Twitter contests, and SEO optimize my ass out.

But let's face it: I'm a nobody. No, I don't want your pity party. I mean in the grand scope of writers, I'm a blip. Hell, everyone is a blip. Turning that blip into something meaningful has become the true mark of this ebook age.

I guess we'll see.

Oh! Oh! I haven't employed the Peyton Progress Meter in a while, so here goes.

I, Crimsonstreak is now in the "Going Deep" phase. Huzzah!

In Defense of Superheroes

My writing output has dwindled in the last few weeks, mostly because I've been working like a dog on some revisions for one of my books. And I also wasted time created book covers (see here and here).

It's a superhero novel.

Speak up, son!

IT'S A SUPERHERO NOVEL.

When I first started writing...and trust me it hasn't been that long ago...I was a little shy to utter that phrase. I gave a more friendly, PC answer: "I write sci-fi and fantasy." Which I do...it's just a lot of that science fiction and fantasy stuff involves people in spandex. With capes.

I still get a little embarrassed about it from time to time. I think people are going to tell me it's immature to like superheroes. They're going to tell me those types of stories are for kids. They're going to smile, nod, and head straight for the door because the guy they just talked to had the immature audacity to pitch a freaking superhero book.

So today I write in defense of superheroes.

Because they can be complex.

They can be real.

They can be flawed.

To me, superheroes reflect ideals. Your super-duper-good vigilante represents the American Dream (Superman). Your masked, shadow-stalking vigilante represents the gray areas of life (Batman). A guy like Captain America stands for liberty and freedom. Captain Marvel symbolizes the latent power of youth and good intentions.

Even the villains have their place. The Joker is an agent of chaos, Lex Luthor stands tall for big business, and Red Skull represents Nazis. And Nazis are bad.

This is nothing you haven't heard before. People far more eloquent than me have covered this topic in greater depth and detail. But I'm explaining why I'm not embarrassed to like and write about superheroes.

Superheroes give us something to aspire to. The real world is full of heroes, but sometimes it doesn't feel like it. In broad terms, superheroes clearly define themselves. The guy in the cape is there to save the day...and you know it because he's wearing a friggin' cape. If we were all so selfless, just imagine how much we could accomplish.

They're just like us...except, you know, they can fly and stuff. Ye Olde Spider-Man is probably the best example here. Poor Peter Parker can't do anything right, gets paid peanuts for taking pictures, and saves the day on the side. Sure, some multi-billionaires are hard to relate to (*cough* Bruce Wayne *cough*), but a great superhero story has a character in there who's relatable. Many have families to protect.

From a storytelling perspective, they're flexible. This is a wide-open genre full of diverse opportunities. You can go supernatural (Ghost Rider), humorous and nigh-invulnerable (The Tick), dark and brooding (I'm not even going to mention his name), intergalactic (Silver Surfer), high-tech (Iron Man), vampiric (Blade), paramilitary (The Punisher), godlike (Thor), and much, much more.

There's lot of "in between." Not every hero dons red, white, and blue. Sometimes they don't wear the white hat...sometimes the hat is gray. Maybe the "hero" kills people. Maybe he/she has to make an impossible choice to prevent some terrible catastrophe. Maybe they have to choose the lesser of two evils. Maybe they have to make a deal with the bad guy. Maybe they are the bad guy.

We can paint in broad strokes. Superheroes certainly have their own shorthand. We know who the guy with the huge biceps and chin that doubles as a nutcracker is supposed to be. We understand the multi-trillionaire with the cowl has all the gadgets. The genre definitely has its tropes...and those easily-accessible ones help set up a world...and then allow authors to flip it upside down.

Grandeur and wonder already included. People can fly, run faster than sound, move things with their minds, and walk through walls. These are not normal abilities (except in comics, of course). Sure, these things can become mundane, but writers who step back and awe at these superhuman acts can share the experience with their readers.

You want stakes? I got your stakes right here. Every story needs high stakes, something big on the line. The stakes don't get any "higher" than superhero stories. I mean, come on, the world's going to blow up. An alien invasion is imminent. A mad scientist plans to unleash a super ray turning everyone into Christopher Walken (yeah...it sounds like the perfect world...but when everyone is Walken, there is no Walken).

What do you think? What draws you to the genre? What pushes you away? Is this just "kid stuff?"

A Few More

I was playing around tonight with a few more cover variants.

The first design on this slate is a simple redress of the covers from earlier. I simply replaced the clean font with the distressed one.

The second and third designs here are almost identical. I'm concerned about the readability of the middle design from far away, so I changed the title from red-black to simply black (the right side example). This is certainly different...and I like the idea of putting a more active picture on the cover.

Getting it Covered

I'm having some fun today with book covers. I know...writers don't get to choose how their books look (unless you publish your book electronically, of course), but I had a few ideas I wanted to try and found some Creative Commons images to play with. Below, you'll find three slates of designs I worked on for my superhero book I, Crimsonstreak this afternoon.

I think (most) of these are a major step up from previous versions of I, Crimsonstreak covers. The biggest issue I found is "Crimsonstreak" is too long of a word. The letter "I" in the title also makes for some layout nightmares.

To combat this, I shortened the title to simply Crimsonstreak and broke the word up into two parts. I also developed a healthy obsession with "distressed fonts" during this process. The distressed fonts do a couple of different things: in some of the covers, they provide a sense of foreboding. In others, they give a sense of movement. Additional notes are under the cover slates.

The first style here is a very old "CS" logo I developed several years ago for the character. I have at least ten variations of that logo, but the one with the lightning design happens to be my favorite. The biggest problem with this one is that the original logo is low-resolution and doesn't look very good enlarged.

The second design sort of looks like a person running out of some kind of building. If you look closely, you'll notice the lockers on either side indicating that this is a school. This design gives the book a creepy vibe...almost as if Crimsonstreak is a horror novel. It isn't.

The third design I made simply because it's a guy running up the side of a building. I airbrushed him red and made a hasty reflection in the glass to match. Enlarged, that design doesn't stand up to scrutiny, but I do like the concept. This is the only design to use all lowercase letters.

I found a great, great superhero stock image via a Creative Commons search. I didn't want to use the face--the hero is a little too old for my protagonist. In addition, I positioned the picture so you can't really tell the character is wearing a cape. It's certainly there if you look for it...but you could also argue it's simply black accent coloring for the character.

The first design here is relatively clean with a distressed font. It feels like it's missing something.

The second is a repositioning of the same image with the chest shield altered to look like the character is wearing a "CS" logo. It also includes the phrase, "Running. Always Running," which is a recurring theme in the book.

The third pic is a variation of the other two. Actually, it's almost exactly like the first one except for the logo on the character's arm. That's the "seal" of the New World Common Wealth, the authoritarian regime controlling the world of the book's setting.

For one reason or another, I'm fond of the image on the left in this pairing. It's simply a person's silhouette (again, a Creative Commons picture is the source) altered slightly and placed over a red backdrop. This is easy to read and the "Running. Always Running" phrase fits nicely at the top.

The final design in this pairing features the New World Common Wealth logo and some flames. The phrase "Enemies of the Common Wealth must die" appears a few times in the text. This design seems more foreboding than most of the others, signaling the book may have some dark undertones. This has a similar problem to the "CS" logo...the image doesn't quite have the resolution to pull this off without becoming a bit blurry.

So anyway...those are a few ideas I came up with this weekend.

Don't know why...but I'm fond of this one.

My very own Amazon page!

I created an author page on Amazon.com yesterday, just for the fun of it.

Of course, you won't find much on it...yet.

I expect that to change in the near future.

You can look at it here...it's about as basic as it gets. Pic, blog RSS feed, Twitter feed, and a link to books featuring my work. So the page is pretty much an inferior version of this blog. Except it's on Amazon.com.

You'll also find it on the ever-growing sidebar of My Kingdom for a Novel...or a Short Story.

You have to see the baby!

That manuscript is...breathtaking.
Just a quick post here today.

A couple of months ago, I reviewed a book for a gentleman who kindly asked me to do so.

My review was mixed. I'll be honest: I was hard on the guy. Some would say too hard.

This was a self-published work; a pure labor of love. The 603-page behemoth had its ups and downs. I noted several positives about it, but the author had plenty to work on as well. The book needed some major restructuring and revisions. Had the author not asked me to look over it, I would've quit after about 50 pages. Perhaps I should have.

I told him not to give up; I understood the criticism would sting because I've felt the sting myself. I made sure my criticism came from one writer to another; not one person to another. That's the hardest part, I think, about critiquing. Some people wear their characters and words on their sleeves and are aghast anyone would have the nerve to say something negative about their book.

It's like the Seinfeld episode with the ugly baby (the episode is "The Hamptons," by the way).

"You have to see the baby!"

Unfortunately, the baby is ugly. In human terms, when confronted with an ugly baby, it's probably best to smile and nod and go on your merry way. If you're a doctor, call it breathtaking. You hope by the time the kid reaches five years old, he or she isn't so ugly. If the "baby" is ugly at five or six, there's always adolescence. Or college. Or...eventually...plastic surgery.

First drafts are Hampton babies. You want everyone to "look at the baby" and shower you with praise. The fact remains: your writing is stilted, your characters one dimensional, your plot less coherent than Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

I've written several times on this blog about the importance of self-editing (the most prominent post here). Self-editing only takes you so far. I'm confident in my writing, sometimes to a fault. I've turned in stories only my eyes have seen...and some of those have been published. However, my beta readers have proven invaluable. They've given me insight into my work I didn't even realize, pointed out inconsistencies, plugged plot holes, and smoothed out some of the rough patches.

In one book, my reader pointed out something so profound, I now have a new working manuscript for that project. A major change to a bland character is really going to help rock this thing out. I wish I could've seen it myself...but I was so close to the book that I was incapable of doing so.

What am I saying?

Well...think of it this way: if you consider your stories to be your babies, don't. Don't coddle them, don't love them, don't shelter them from the bad things out there. Because when someone comes to "see the baby" and doesn't like what they read, your parental instincts will kick in and you'll be incapable of changing a single thing. Learn to see the beauty in your writing, but understand faults do exist. Take the advice as a writer and not as a person.

Advice to Myself and Young Writers

For almost eight years now, I've worked at the same place. It's not that bad (most days), but I had to laugh the other day when I took a good look at my employee ID. Yes, the face is mine, though the man smiling back at me is probably 20 pounds lighter. He looks so fresh-faced, so ready to take on the world, his smile a genuine smile of "I'm happy to be here today."

Were someone to take a snapshot for a new photo ID, that face would be a little heavier. Not just the weight mind you...but a heaviness would've settled in around the eyes. Lines would crease the once-smooth forehead. The smile would be there, but only to say, "Yes, you're taking my picture. I'd better smile."

Eight Years Ago Matt, meet Today Matt.

Really, they're one and the same...yet, not. Today Matt has a different world view from Eight Years Ago Matt. Eight Years Ago Matt watched more sports, played more video games, hung out with friends more often, read a lot, and made it his goal to become a sports broadcaster. Eight Years Ago Matt thought like a college student because, well, he was basically a college student who lucked into a job in TV news.

His first job is Today Matt's only job.

So today, as Today Matt (I apologize for the third-person shtick--by the way, I always thought "shtick" was spelled "schtick"...but apparently it's not) I'm going to give my younger self some advice. In a conundrum of epic proportions, Eight Years Ago Matt can't actually use to this advice--it's far too late for that--but perhaps a younger, wiser generation will learn something.

But probably not.

Make sure that "dream" is really something you want. For years, I deluded myself into thinking I'd be a sports broadcaster. This goal was easy to accomplish, I told myself. But realities began settling in. Working in sports means working on weekends. Traveling a lot. In all likelihood, moving from market to market. I thought I could do all those things, but I didn't really want it badly enough.

Let rejection strengthen you. In my quest to anchor Sportscenter, I made a resume tape and sent it out to markets across the country. My grand mailing spree included eight small markets with openings. My dream sailed on the wings of a cover letter, demo tape, and the UPS Store. No one called. One bothered with a form letter reply. And so I, Eight Years Ago Matt, decided "that's it." Goodbye, lifelong ambition. Instead of pressing ahead, I let it weaken me.

You'll wander. You'll wonder. And you'll wonder about wandering. When you're 23 years old and fresh out of college, the world brims with enough possibilities to make your head spin. Oh, the places you will go! You could do this, you could do that. Whatever you wanted. Then you enter the workforce and go, "Really? This is what's going on?" Eventually, something else will find you.

Don't resist the call. I remember the very moment I "decided" I wanted to be a writer. Well, okay, it was actually in sixth grade when my middle grade classic The Adventures of the Taxis thrilled my classmates. Sometime after that, I "decided" to become a sportscaster. And then after I "decided" sportscasting wasn't in the cards, I wandered. I wondered. I wondered about wandering. Then I "decided" I wanted to be a writer. I should've made the switch YEARS ago. But only in the last year did I become super-serious about it.

You can't do it alone. This, for me, is the hardest part. I am not a loner by nature, but I've always had the confidence to believe I can do anything I put my mind to. In some respects, I still believe that. However, writing is a personal, solitary experience...sometimes too solitary. You can get lost in your own bravado and watch the confidence turn into arrogance. You can't do it alone. You need beta readers, a critique group, and people to bounce ideas off. Because while one writer is good, having two writers is better...it's as if the creativity magnifies exponentially when you add more opinions to the equation.

Let the rejections come! An earlier point touched upon letting rejection strengthen you instead of weakening you. What I'm saying here is you should expect rejections to come. Oh, they will. From agents and editors big and small. The only writer who's never been rejected hasn't been rejected because he/she never sent anything out. It's hard releasing your work "out into the wild," yet you have to.

Don't wait for someone to "discover" your talent because they won't. Get. Your stuff. Out there. Write a blog, submit a short story, post a query letter in a forum and let the sharks feast. Don't sit back, write your stories, keep them to yourself, and think someone will find you. You have to find them. You have to scream from the rooftops, "I'm a writer!" and make it impossible for anyone to miss you.

Do what works for you. 2K every day. 300 words in an hour. Big splurges netting 5K in a day. A weekend of 10,000 words. Notebook and pen. Notebook with mouse. Desktop. iPad. Dry erase board. A stick in the dirt. Short stories. Poems. Novels. Novellas. Romance. Sci-Fi. Kid lit. Self-help. Travelogues. Find the methods and genres that get your juices flowing.

Don't be afraid of success. Don't be afraid of failure. Cheer with every acceptance. Stew (briefly) over each rejection. But as soon as that rejection comes, take the work, polish it, and send it out until it finds a home. If it's good--and you know it's good--someone will take it. Some fear success and do nothing; others fear failure and do nothing. They have one thing in common: they do nothing.

It won't be perfect. Your story employs "that" too often. You used too many semicolons. You messed up a verb tense. Sure, you should've caught it during revisions. Fix it, send it back out.

Don't let "later" turn into "never." I'd like to tell myself eight years ago or even five years ago to write. You see, Eight Years Ago Matt and his subsequent pre-Today Matt iterations always thought he'd "get around to it" one day when it came to writing. Boom. Eight years later. Eight years of writing and learning and submitting work wasted. Gone. Torched. Forever. Don't say "later." Say "now." Otherwise, "later" becomes "never."

Do. Not. Quit. This piece of wisdom is hypocritical; after all, I told you how I gave up on sportscasting. I quit. I've come to terms with that. My dream has changed; it has grown up as I have grown up. And while calling touchdowns and home runs and (this is for my buddy Chris) game-winning one-timers seemed great when I was younger, it doesn't seem so wonderful now. My focus has changed.

I was born a writer, but I resisted the call.

Never again.

Focus on the Writing

In a writing group this weekend, a colleague of mine said something mind-blowing.

He basically commented how it's so easy to get wrapped up in publishing talk, marketing talk, social media and blog talk, book cover design talk, agent talk, and other industry chatter that we forget to focus on the real reason we're doing all that talking.

His point hit me squarely in the jaw.

K-O, baby.

Focus on the writing.

It's the reason we're doing any of this. The blogging, the tweeting, the query letters, the short story submissions, the writing conferences...we're doing all of it because we love writing. We stress over self-pub vs. the Big Six and Kindle book price points; we stew over rejections and failed pitches. We remind ourselves how two billion publishers rejected J.K. Rowling before her books became THE BEST THING EVER. We forage for Twitter and Facebook followers and hope for retweets that grow our potential readership.

In all of that, something is lost.

Focus on the writing.

I'm guilty of it. I've spent hours upon hours looking up places to submit my work, making revisions based solely on submission formats, and creating elevator pitches and query letters. These are important things, but they kept me from putting the focus where it needs to be. Yep, you guessed: on the writing.

So the next time your writing group starts talking about query letters or agent pitches or any of those things, be my colleague from this weekend. Start reading your work aloud, take your finely-crafted prose and polish it even more. Ultimately, all the pitches and querying in the world won't matter if you're offering an inferior product.

Focus on the writing.

New short story, Sold-Out Conseco!

I started a new short story today and made quite a bit of headway, finishing with more than 3,500 words...good enough for "Sold-Out Conseco" on the Reggie Miller Writing Continuum!

Guest Blog!

In a career first, I put together a guest blog for another site.

My friends over at Superheronation.com asked for some guest blog pitches and liked one of mine. It will be somewhat familiar to any of my readers--it's a truncated version of my post on self-editing--but it's still a neat concept.

You can check it out over at Superhero Nation.

The "Other Days" Category

Had a terrific idea for a short story in a shared world anthology, but I'm struggling for output. Some days, you blink and produce 2,000 words by magic. Other days, three hours pass and you've mustered a paltry 1,000 words.

Today falls into the "other days" category. That's "Free Throws and Jumpers" on the Reggie Miller Writing Continuum.