Smart stories, epic ideas
Author J.B. Simmons blogs on creative writing, editing, publishing, and music. He is the bestselling author of twelve books that bring hope to dystopia. Readers can't put them down.
November 2018 marks the release of The Blue Tower, the first book of a YA series about a boy who wakes up in a mysterious tower with no memories of his former life. He must learn who he was before he can figure out why he's here...and how to get out.
The Unbound trilogy tells the story of a teen from Manhattan with nightmares of a dragon and the world ending in 2066. It has been acclaimed as "The Da Vinci Code meets Hunger Games meets Left Behind... An imagining epic." (Hugh Hewitt)
If I swore to you that the end of the world is coming in 2066, would you care? How about if it’s coming tomorrow? Would you change your New Year’s resolutions?
Nope. You probably wouldn’t. And I would never swear to such a thing. Predictions about the end have proven wrong a thousand times over, so we don’t believe them anymore. No one “knows the hour.”
So, what do you think about the Millennium? Let’s look into it.
Read MoreWhat makes a bestseller? The story has to be gripping. The characters have to be real. And the words have to let all kinds of readers find meaning — something that matters for their own lives.
Maybe that's why the endings of so many great books are open to interpretation. They guide readers toward their own conclusions. This might help explain why the bestselling book of all time has such a crazy final chapter.
This is the first of a four-part series on that wild old book: Revelation.
Read MoreI like the idea of simplicity even more than I like the practice of it. This is probably the case for most of us. In our super-complex modern world, every step toward simplicity feels like a leap. But it's a leap worth taking, and especially for writers.
In his classic book Celebration of Discipline, Richard Foster presents a beautiful description of simplicity. He also describes ten principles to help us understand what simplicity means today. These repeatedly reminded me of Strunk & White's The Elements of Style. The connection is that simplicity in life helps us write with the unique force of simple words. As Strunk & White put it, "style is the writer, and therefore what you are, rather than what you know, will at last determine your style."
Here I boil down Foster's ten ideas for simplicity and tie them to Strunk & White's timeless lessons on writing.
Read MoreI recently read these classics by Madeleine L’Engle and C.S. Lewis for the first time. I don’t know how I missed them as a kid. But better late than never.
The scope and style blew me away. Of course they’re good, that’s why they’re classics. But why? What has made them stand the test of time? Or, to put it another way, who will be reading the Percy Jackson, Divergent, Twilight, and my own Unbound series in 50 years?
Let's find out.
Read MoreLet's assume you built a rocket. A glorious fly-to-the-moon kind of rocket. Assume, too, that you want to chart your rocket's path and would rather let the world see it now than grind through the bureaucracy of NASA.
What's next? You fill up the gas, fire up the engine, and five, four, three, two, one...blast off! If only it were that simple to reach the stars.
I have three launches under my belt in the past year (books, not rockets). My latest launch, Unbound a month ago, was my best yet. I've seen what works. And what doesn't. This blog shares what I've learned so far.
Read MoreAmazon Bestselling Author. Smart stories, epic ideas.
