One of the best books about writing fiction is “Techniques of the Selling Writer” by Dwight V. Swain.
Speaking specifically about creating fiction, he writes:
So … no magic key. No universal formula. No mystic secret. No Supersonic Plot Computer.
It’s enough to plunge a man into despair.
-Not to mention frustration.
Yet there’s another way to look at your [...]

You may remember Ben Stein from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off , or his smarty pants performances on the game show Win Ben Stein’s Money.  What you may not know is that he is a lawyer, economist, and financial author - to name a few. His wide range of experience makes him a very appropriate author [...]

It’s no secret. I think Earl Nightingale is one of the greatest writers and speakers of all time. His voice is engaging, his knowledge is thorough, and his messages are visionary. Start Here is a collection of some of his best radio messages.
Among other things, this collection includes:
The Strangest Secret. This recording was the first [...]

On my brother’s blog, he’s started to discuss some of things he believes important in forming a master mind group. He asked me to check it out and give some input.
First off, here’s some of Napoleon Hill’s tips from Think And Grow Rich

Ally yourself with a group of as many people as you may need [...]

Let’s start off by listing some famous quotes on thinking.
A man is not what he thinks he is, but what he thinks, he is.
Max R. Hickerson

The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts: therefore, guard accordingly, and take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature.

Marcus Aurelius
Rarely [...]

I’ve got a bookshelf full of works by folks like Napoleon Hill, Benjamin Franklin, Earl Nightingale and Dale Carnegie. They were all enormously successful and masters of communication. I could read them a hundred times, and never stop learning. If I could implement the principles in those relatively few works, I would have all the [...]

I have had a copy of Og Mandino’s “The Greatest Miracle in The World” sitting on my shelf next to his “The Gift of Acabar” and “The Greatest Salesman in The World” for a long time now. I really enjoyed the Greatest Salesman, but I wasn’t very impressed with The Gift, so I didn’t know [...]

Here’s something I came across while reading the other day. It sums up a great many things that I believe.
Without ambition one starts nothing. Without work one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it. The man who knows how will always have a job. The man who [...]

Earl nightingale once joked, “Success is simply a matter of luck. Ask any failure.” Its almost funny how many people who have neither the drive nor patience to make themselves successful blame their failures on “bad luck.”
It has been said many times that luck is what happens when preparedness meets opportunity. Consistently successful people haven’t [...]

What makes a person successful in this modern world? I believe that techniques may have changed, but the attributes of successful people have ever been the same. As such, there is still much to learn from folks who were born over a hundred years ago.
William Maxwell “Max” Aitken was born the son of a Presbyterian [...]