tips – J. Scott Coatsworth

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POINT OF VIEW: The Monster at the End of This Book

August 4, 2025 by scott

Note: I got up this morning, having just finished writing the first draft of Down the River, and thought abut writing a column about The Monster at the End of This Book. Then a little part of my brain tickled me and said “didn’t you do this before?” Turns out I had, and this says exactly what I wanted to say. So I am resharing this column from 2021, with a slight update for my latest novel completion. Enjoy! When I was a kid, I had a few favorite picture books. At the top of the list was The Wump … Read more

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Point of View: Writing to Distraction

November 14, 2022November 14, 2022 by scott

There’s a great skit in Portlandia where Fred Armison plays a character working on his computer, getting calls and messages on his cell phone, alerts on his iPad, and “Netflix” style DVDs in the mail, all of which drives him to distraction. It was hilarious at the time. Who would let themselves be sucked into dealing with so many devices at once? Now a decade later, this is my life. My computer is my window into the world at work. I am constantly checking my email box (twelve separate email addresses and counting), my Facebook comments, and the news – … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: The Monster at the End of This Book

November 8, 2021November 8, 2021 by scott

When I was a kid, I had a few favorite picture books. At the top of the list was The Wump World – and it’s so freaking relevant now in regards to the human-driven nature of climate change that it’s scary. Get this book for your little kids NOW (and read it yourself). In a similar vein, I loved Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax, about the ills of deforestation and the impacts of environmental degradation on the world and humankind. But one of my all-time faves was the Little Golden Book called The Monster at the End of This Book. It … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: Choosing Person and tense – First Person

June 28, 2021June 28, 2021 by scott

When crafting a story, every writer has to make some key choices: What’s the genre? What’s the tone? How about the setting? Who are the characters, and what’s going to happen to them? How will they react? And will it all end? But there’s another choice we all make, consciously or unconsciously, that can have a huge impact on the story and how it’s perceived by the reader: Choosing the person you’ll tell your story in, and the tense. The vast majority of stories are told in third-person, simple past: Someone knocked on the door. Zippy the dingo went to … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: Damage

March 8, 2021 by scott

“What’s your damage, Heather?” We all carry damage around with us in some way, shape or form, like an unwanted hitchhiker. Damage from things that were done to us as children. Damage from things we did to others. Damage from the world and society at large. I carry the damage of homophobia. Of being called a faggot and queer and a sissy, damage from the nasty looks straight guys sometimes gave me when I was a teenager. I carry the damage of shattered hopes, dreams, and expectations, and the damage of a few hundred writing rejections that feed my imposter … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: I Wish I’d Known

February 22, 2021February 22, 2021 by scott

Last week, I asked The Universe for ideas for my future columns, and The Universe, personified in one Joel Arellano on Facebook, replied: “A list of 10 Things you wish you had known before publishing your works.” I’ve been doing this writing thing semi professionally since 2014, so I should be able to come up with ten things to tell my newbie writing self, right? Here it goes: Rejections Happen. Don’t Let Them Stop You. If you give up being a writer because of rejections, you’ve lost the game. You may be an awful writer, or you might be the … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: Writing Short

November 2, 2020 by scott

For most of my life I considered myself a novel writer. Novels were my preferred reading length – I love getting lost in an epic story with lots of room to explore. Give me five-hundred pages, a thousand even, and let me roam in your world. And if it’s an epic series of 10+ books? I am so there, with reading glasses on. So it’s curious that I find myself writing lots of shorts these days too. Don’t get me wrong. I still LOVE novels (reading and writing them), and have two in progress with a third soon to be … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: Taking My Time

May 11, 2020May 11, 2020 by scott

I’m writing again, and it feels really good. 🙂 But I’m doing it a little differently this time. I’m working over my first three chapters multiple times before moving ahead, making sure that I have three things settled in my head: The thrust of the plot The interdynamics of the characters The major and minor details of the world I always do this to some extent, but have never done so in such a thoughtful and deliberate way. From Pantsing to Plotting When I first started out as a writer, I was a total pantser. My overflowing “drawer” of what … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: Reading to the Crowd

November 18, 2019 by scott

The first time I read one of my works aloud, I was scared shitless. That’s not entirely true. The first time was a breeze. It was the second time that almost killed me. The first time was at RainbowCon circa 2015. I was scheduled to read in a huge meeting room with at least a hundred chairs, and just looking at them made my heart beat like a jackhammer. But due to low attendance and too much programming, I ended up reading to an audience of just six people – the four of us authors scheduled for the hour and … Read more