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James Scott Bell on Muck Rack

James Scott Bell

Los Angeles
As seen in: Whimsical Wanderings, Patreon, Substack, Santa Barbara Independent, Writer's Digest, The Chronicle Herald, Condé Nast Traveller, KMOV-TV (St. Louis, MO), Bozeman Daily Chronicle, Gamepur, The Daily Californian and
International Thriller Writers Award winner, and #1 bestselling writing instructor. The Suspense Never Rests™
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Articles

What Makes a Successful Writer?

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By James Scott Bell
| killzoneblog.com
by James Scott Bell @jamesscottbell “It took me fifteen years to discover that I had no talent for writing, but I couldn’t give it up because by that time I was too famous.” – Robert Benchley. What makes a successful writer these days?
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Chipping Away What Isn’t My Book

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By James Scott Bell
| killzoneblog.com
by James Scott Bell @jamesscottbell There’s an apocryphal story about a fellow admiring Michelangelo’s magnificent statue of David. He asks the artist how he produced something so divine. Michelangelo answers, “I looked at the block of marble and chipped away everything that was not David.” That quote is so good I wish he’d actually said it. He did have a real zinger for the impatient Pope Julius II, while working on the Sistine Chapel. “When will you be finished?” shouted the pope.
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Let’s Talk Heartily About Adverbs

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By James Scott Bell
| killzoneblog.com
by James Scott Bell @jamesscottbell It’s almost a commandment among fiction writers: Cut the adverbs! Sol Stein called adverbs a form of “flab” and advised cutting them all in a manuscript, then readmitting only “the necessary few after careful testing.” Mr. King famously wrote: The road to hell is paved with adverbs. He did, however, add this: I can be a good sport about adverbs, though. Yes I can. With one exception: dialogue attribution.
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