Become A Story Idea Machine

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Now’s your chance

Apply to take the next Novel Writers Academy course: How to Create Story Ideas That Beg To Be Written.

  • Six-weeks
  • Starts: Jan 2, 2022
  • Ends: Feb 21, 2022
  • Gobs of hands on practice
  • One-on-one guidance from me

At the end of the six weeks you will be a story idea machine.

I will be working with only a small set of people. And so you need to apply to get in.

The deadline for applications is midnight, December 11th. So contact me now to get the application instructions.

Get Application Instructions Now!


A cracking good story idea requires five critical elements.

Until you have all five, you’ll struggle to plot. You’ll write a few scenes and run out of gas. You’ll feel like the story just isn’t going anywhere.

And that’s because it isn’t. It can’t. A story isn’t a story without all five elements.

However, once you develop these five things, your story will suddenly roar to life. There are a few other elements that are important as well, but these five things form the core of the story setup. 

In this course you’re not going to merely learn about all of those story elements. You’re going to go deep and learn what can only be learned by actually doing the work and developing story idea after story idea with personal one-on-one feedback from someone who knows what they’re doing.   

When you finish, you won’t just know story theory. You will be a story idea machine. And you will be that because you have put in the work. The right work.  

Again, this is not a course full of lectures and videos. This is a course where you’re going to work. And develop the insights and skills that only come from doing the work.

You’re actually going to:

  • Come up with story setup after story setup after story setup
  • And improve them with one-on-one feedback. 

It’s going to:

  • Eliminate years of you wandering about in the story wilderness trying to figure things out on your own. 
  • Put you miles ahead of other writers who have no idea what’s really at the core of story. 

You are going to learn how to develop killer story ideas on purpose instead of on accident. Which means you’ll be able to do again and again. Reliably. Like clockwork. 

Course details

The focus of the class is not on learning about story, although you will do that. The majority of your time will be spent on developing stories. 

You can’t become a carpenter by watching videos and reading books about it.

You have to get out on the work site, cut wood, and pound nails. You have to make the mistakes all beginning carpenters make, get feedback, and improve.

The same goes for writing.

And you’re going to work in this class. You develop 21 story setups. In fact, you develop more because the 21 are just the ones you turn into me. And with each one your skills, insights, and abilities grow.  

In the beginning, your setups will be bare bones. By the end, they’ll be fully developed setups that beg to be written. Setups you can use to immediately write the first draft  of your novel, whether that’s in outline or chapter form. 

Here’s what you do each week. 

Week 1.

  • Uncover the secrets of what’s really at the heart of story and how to generate ideas. 
  • Define your genre requirements
  • Create story setups 1-3

Week 2.

  • Uncover the secrets to compelling characters 
  • Create character sketches
  • Create story setups 4-7 

Week 3.

  • Uncover the secrets to formidable obstacles
  • Create story setups 8-11 

Week 4.

  • Uncover the secrets to interesting casts
  • Create story setups 12-15

Week 5.

  • Uncover the secrets to managing multiple storylines and series
  • Create story setups 16-19 

Week 6.

  • Create story setups 20-21. These are your capstone projects where you apply everything you’ve learned and take it to the next level

In this class you develop story idea after story idea after story idea. You are going to be marinated in the work of developing characters, THOMs, goals, obstacles, settings, casts, and more. And because of that, each week will not only bring an explosion of insights, but new skills and abilities.

Every week you get two private, one-on-one, live sessions with me where you get encouragement and feedback on what you’ve developed. And you’ll have access to a private Facebook group where you can apply the principles to brainstorm even MORE ideas for each other’s stories. 

At first you might feel a bit shy and worried about your ideas and abilities. But you’ll soon get over that. By the end of the course you’ll be one of those people that can generate terrific ideas easily. And you’ll be able to do that because you will have put in the work to become a different writer.  

What’s the price?

Hours of one-on-one instruction from a professional editor or author costs thousands of dollars. An MFA program can cost $25,000 to $30,000 or more!

But this course won’t cost anywhere close to that.

Plus you’re going to learn things here you’ll never get in an MFA program (I know. I was accepted into a top-ranked program).

The cost of this course is $799. And I personally guarantee your results. You’ll be totally oh-my-gosh-I’m-so-happy-I-took-that-class satisfied, or I’ll give you your money back. No questions asked.

Now’s your chance to stop spinning your wheels. I can’t tell you how much I wish I’d had something like this when I’d started:

  • The secrets about the true core of story.
  • The secrets about how to come up with ideas. 
  • Actual work with personal one-on-one feedback. 
  • Laser focused on what actually matters, not a bunch of ridiculous writing rules. 

When you finish, you will be a story idea machine. 

You won’t know plotting. That’s a different course and set of skills. You won’t know how to write chapters. But you’ll know how to create the engine that powers all the rest of that. You’ll know how to create the core that makes awesome plots and chapters possible. 

If you want to take this course, click the button below and contact me. I will tell you exactly how to apply.

I’m not going to be able to accept everyone who wants to take the class. I have a very strict limit on the number of students I can work with. So you need to get your application in before the deadline of midnight, December 11th.

Don’t wait!

Contact me now to get application instructions.

Get Application Instructions Now!

Good Stuff! The Man Who Invented Christmas

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If you love funny, feel-good movies, today’s you’re lucky day.

Because I’m going to tell you about one that will help brighten your Christmas season.

The movie is The Man Who Invented Christmas.

It’s about Charles Dickens, the author of A Christmas Carol.

Now some of you might already be groaning. Please, no, not another story about Scrooge.

I felt the same way. I haven’t enjoyed a movie about Scrooge for a long time. No, not even the one featuring Scrooge McDuck.

So I didn’t want to watch this, but I kept hearing so many good reviews, I finally caved and gave it a shot. I’m so happy I did.

This delightful movie reinvigorates the story with a whole new twist because it’s not about Scrooge. Not directly.

Instead, it’s about Charles Dickens. It’s 1843 and Dickens is suffering financial hardship because his last three books bombed in the marketplace. He determines to write a new book and publish it himself to restore his finances. That book is A Christmas Carol.

Dickens needs to finish it in six weeks so it can be ready for Christmas. That’s difficult enough, but will anyone read it? His friends and publishers keep telling him that the book will be a failure because, at the time, many thought Christmas irrelevant and didn’t celebrate it. Furthermore, the story isn’t developing as it should.

Now the movie does take some dramatic license, but, by the end, I think you’ll agree the message of Scrooge is never more poignant. I watched the final scene with Scrooge multiple times and thought about it for days afterwards.

If you want to laugh, be inspired, and feel the spirit of Christmas, I think you’ll love this movie.

Gun Runner wins Dragon Award

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I was very happy to receive news that GUN RUNNER, the novel Larry Correia and I wrote together, just won the 2021 Dragon Award for Best Military Science Fiction or Fantasy Novel.

The Dragon Awards are a set of literary and media awards presented annually by Dragon Con in Atlanta, Georgia for excellence in various categories of science fiction, fantasy, and horror novels, movies, television, and games.

And the cool thing is that these awards are voted on by fandom, meaning thousands and thousands of folks voted.

Past winners have included authors such as Terry Pratchett, Brandon Sanderson, Rick Riordan, and Stephen King.

As stated in earlier posts, the seed came from Larry’s eleven-year-old son, Joe.

When Larry and I sat down to develop an idea for a workshop we were holding for Life, the Universe and Everything, a large annual writer’s conference in Provo, a number of years ago, Joe was listening in on the stairs.

We settled on a genre, and then Correia asked, “Hey Joe, what’s cool?”

Joe immediately popped up and said, “Giant robots, bandits, and murderers.”

“We looked at each other and said, ‘Dang, that IS cool.’”

Forty minutes later we had the key elements we needed for the story we’d use in the workshop. A number of years after that workshop, Baen Books wanted a collaboration from Larry, and that story was one of the first he thought of.

Larry and I are both frequently asked to present at writers conferences. And one of the tips each of us shares to new authors is to loosen up and have fun. One of the keys to writing an entertaining story is to simply ask, “What’s cool?” And go from there.

I’m thrilled and honored that those who voted selected Gun Runner for this award.

Gun Runner a finalist for the Dragon Award

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I’m happy to report that GUN RUNNER, the science fiction, action adventure novel that Larry Correia and I wrote, is a finalist for this year’s Dragon Award for Best Military Science Fiction or Fantasy Novel.

The award is part of Dragon Con, the massive multimedia convention held annually in Atlanta, Georgia. The winners will be announced at the con which takes place over Labor Day weekend.

Lots of great books on the list.

You can see all the finalists here .

Good Stuff! Two fun family and party games

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There’s nothing quite like the laughter and fun a good family or party game creates. And we discovered two games this summer that have brought hours of pleasure.

The first is Just One. It’s for 3 to 7 players and takes about 20 minutes to finish.

Now, I was skeptical of this game at first because it’s a cooperative party game.

I mean, come on. Cooperation?

No teams?

No competition?

What were we going to do—hold hands and sing Kumbaya?

I was fully expecting to be bored out of my mind. Boy, was I wrong. There was suspense, laughter, and loads of fun.

There are 13 rounds in each game. In each round, one player blindly selects the number of a word on one of the game cards. The other players each write a one word clue to help that player guess the word. However, if two or more players write down the same word, they have to remove that clue.

So you’re trying to come up with one-word clues the others won’t that still help the guessing player. Some clues lead the guessing player off onto funny tangents. Others are just funny. And then there’s the suspense of whether someone else wrote your word and whether the player will be able to guess it from the clues that are left.

Your goal is to guess all 13 words selected. And there’s a little score card that ranks what it means if you get 13, 12, 11, etc.

As an aside, it’s crazy to me that the score card provided motivation. But it did. It was a delightful little brain hack.

One Word is a quick, fun game. We’ve played it with a few as 3 and as many 8 players and had a ball each time. We are so happy to have it in the family game closet.

The next is Fish Bowl. It’s for 4+ players. What this game does is take favorites like Taboo, One Word, and charades and mixes them together in a competitive game between two teams.

Here’s how you play it. Each person writes up 5 to 7 different words or phrases on separate slips of paper, folds the papers, and puts them in a bowl. Then you do 3 rounds.

Round 1 is like Taboo, where you can describe, but can’t say or act out the word or phrase on the paper. You select a team to go first. One person on the team selects the papers from the bowl and then tries to describe the word or phrase. The team has 30-45 seconds (you decide) to guess as many of the words as possible. When the time is up, it’s the other team’s turn. Back and forth you go, selecting a new team member each turn to give the clues, until there are no more slips of paper in the bowl. Then you count the number of slips each team got and move to round 2.

In round two, you put all of the slips of paper back into the bowl. The team that went second in the first round starts this one. This time the person giving clues gets to share one word. That’s it. And the team has to guess it. Again, the team has 30-45 seconds to guess as many as they can.  Then it goes to the next team. And you switch back and forth just like you did in round 1, and when the slips of paper are gone, each team counts up their score.

In round 3, you put all of the slips of paper back into the bowl. The time the person giving the clues has to act them out. No words allowed. You run this round just like you did the first two with  30-45  second turns, switching back and forth between the teams until all the papers are gone. At that point, the teams  total their scores for this round and then for all 3 rounds together to see which team won.

If you don’t want to use paper, you can play a version online.

Either way, it’s another fast, fun game. In fact, we played it last night. And laughed and laughed when one daughter was trying to get the other to guess “sling” and nailed her teammate in the head trying to act out a rock hitting Goliath.   Movies are great. But sometimes what you need is some delightful game fun. And I’m betting you’ll love these.