Gerard Bianco Studio

( The Deal Master Trailer Banner) Novels, if they are well written, are exciting emotional grabbers. Movies, if they are well made, can be an exhilarating ride on an emotional rollercoaster. When you can put the two together, you have a dynamic duo that will and can support and enhance each other, offering the viewer twice the impact and twice the emotional effect. I am pleased and excited to announce to my blog readers that the book trailer for my mystery/thriller  The Deal Master  is hot off the press and ready to be viewed. Here it is. I hope you like it! The trailer was produced by the award-winning team of Nikki Gold Farren and Gerard  Bianco Jr. and their production team at Rare View Films. https://www.facebook.com/RareViewFilms   Along with films, Rare View Films also produces music videos, and they are now in the process of producing a comedy web series titled, Method or Madness. Be sure to watch for it. The movie includes...

Ever read a novel that starts out like a house on fire, has a middle that keeps you turning pages, but then falls off at the end like a herd of buffalo stampeding off a cliff? Ever watch a movie that begins like a blockbuster and then falls flat with a clichéd ending that you've seen a hundred times in bad “B” movies? I’m convinced this happens because the authors of these books and films did not use a well–planned outline when creating their stories—one that will ensure a chart-buster ending. Imagine an archer randomly shooting an arrow into the air in hopes that it will somehow hit a bull's-eye somewhere. Outlining a story from beginning to end will guarantee that you will hit your target every time. Not using an outline to write your story is like a doctor saying, “Oh, we won’t take X-rays, we’ll just start at the head and keep cutting until we find the problem.” Writing a short story or a novel is tough enough without having to stop in the m...

            There are criteria that writers and scholars use to define great fiction—theories that set rules and raise bars. And although definitions may change slightly with each successive generation, there is a common belief that all great fiction is tied together by a common denominator, regardless of genre or current trend. Author Steve Almond described it best when he said: “Literature is nothing less than an ongoing discussion about what it means to be human. It is intended to awaken compassion within the reader, and when necessary, distress.” ( http://www.mobylives.com/Almond_Bloom.html)   In other words, all great fiction is informed with emotion .                A writer’s most important goal is to make the reader identify with and care about what happens to the characters. Maren Elwood, professional writing coach and author who worked with thousands of writers during her li...

A story is increasingly more interesting and enjoyable when the reader is able to visualize what a writer is communicating. Writers use metaphors and similes to make their writing more visual. A Double-Duty sentence does even more, acting like an analogy instead of a metaphor. You may ask, “What is the difference between an analogy and a metaphor?” A clear description can be found in Bradford Stull’s The Elements of Figurative Language (Longman, 2001) in which he states, “In essence, the analogy does not claim total identification, which is the property of the metaphor. It claims a similarity of relationships.” With this definition in mind, let us look at an ideal example of a Double-Duty sentence. G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936) was a prolific English writer who published works on philosophy, ontology, poetry, plays, journalism, public lectures and debates, literary and art criticism, biography, Christian apologetics and fiction, including detective stories. He is best known t...

If you’re a writer of detective fiction or someone who loves a good detective mystery, then you’ll want to learn all you can about the “Big Four” female detective writers from the 20s and 30s. Their combined work has sold in the billions. Okay, let’s take the leader out of the picture since her work has sold over 4 billion copies . That still leaves millions of books sold, which means there are millions of fans, which means millions of buyers. That ain’t chump change.    1)       Number one on the list is Agatha Christie (1890 – 1976). Creator of two of the best-loved detectives, Hercule Poirot and Jane Marple. She wrote the best-selling mystery of all time and one of the best-selling books of all time, And Then There Were None , selling over 100 million copies.    2)       Dorothy L. Sayers (1893 – 1957). Creator of one of the great detectives of the “Golden Age,” Lord Peter Wimsey—sophisticated, ...

You want to be a writer, eh? Okay, then; what will you need to do? Here are 12 ways in which you can begin: 1 st   and foremost, a writer must understand his/her own language.   (We’ll go into greater depth on this subject and those that follow in subsequent blog posts.) A writer must understand that writing is more than simply putting two or more words together to create a sentence. A writer must understand that writing is more than simply telling a story. A writer must understand that all words have meaning, and this meaning will reflect differently to different people. A writer must be fascinated with words, and have a passion about length of sentences, metaphor, simile, rhythm and flow, and the aesthetic appearance of how words appear on a page. A writer must understand originality. A writer must be inventive. A writer must be succinct. A writer may not always hit the center of the bullseye, but he must, at the very least, have the ability to hit the targ...

Today, I'm excited to re-introduce Lin Anderson for Part 3 of her 3-part series on The Structure of Story. Lin has a lot of writing experience, having published eight novels, which feature forensic expert Dr Rhona MacLeod. Her books have been translated into several langauages and are in development for TV. Her short stories have appeared in a number of collections, most recently  Dead Close  was chosen for the Best of British Crime 2011. Also a screenwriter, her film  River Child  won a BAFTA and the Celtic Film Festival best fiction award. Lin's website is:  http://www.lin-anderson.com/   In this essay, Lin talks about the importance of the ending and how it relates to all that has come before it. To illustrate her thoughts, Lin has included one of her short stories, One Good Turn . Part 3: The Resolution Before you write your resolution I'd like you to consider one thing. What image/thought/emotion do you want your reader to have in their...