Articles written by James Johnson

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About me - James Johnson

I was born at Cherry Point Marine Corps Air Station, North Carolina.

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Arts & Humanities > Writing Tips How to write an excellent first chapter for your novel: 3 of 19

Chapter One is your introduction and point-of-beginning for all that follows. It's the place where the reader starts her acquaintance with the characters and story world. The first chapter is a trailer, a preview of coming attractions. And first impressions are critical. Never pull a potholder out of your pocket in the first...
Arts & Humanities > Writing Tips Fiction writing tips: Bringing words to life with descriptive narrative: 1 of 3

Description transforms telling into showing. It changes report to experience. In a nutshell, description changes words into the mechanism that helps imagination and memory create emotional experience in the reader. Its transformational property is what makes description valuable. So, how do you make description perform? Ever...
Education > Education (Other) Should the school year be lengthened?: 15 of 28

Bad Idea. Thirty years ago our school district tried year long terms. The 12-month schedule created some benefits, but the flaws were serious and quickly killed everyone's enthusiasm for the change. The school district never repeated the trial. Consultants assured the school board it would save a ton of money for new constru...
Arts & Humanities > Writing Tips Tips for writing horror fiction: 9 of 14

It's my experience that most horror writers cannot articulate how they write horror, but horror conforms to a few simple rules that are easy to master. The point of horror is to make readers scream. How you do this is by deceiving and surprising the reader. The deception and surprise takes the form of assuring the reader tha...
Arts & Humanities > Internet Writing & Blogging Is using an academic ghost writer dishonest?: 3 of 4

College has never been a fair arena. For most of history people were locked out of college for want of cash. Or sex and race were barriers. Or your father's social status was an obstacle. Business and government tip the scales with their thumbs and feet all the time. Because they want to guarantee the results they want. Meri...
Arts & Humanities > Thoughts on Writing Fiction writing: How long should a chapter be?: 7 of 9

How long should a chapter be? As long as necessary, of course. This is a simplistic answer, but the correct one. Include everything that needs to be there and leave out anything that doesn't. Clear as mud! To my way of thinking, a chapter is an account of what happened when you collected one item on your scavenger hunt list ...
Politics, News & Issues > Political & Economic Theory Would a "flat world" economic policy be a fairer way?: 3 of 3

There is no such thing as Cosmic Justice. Nature, in its infinite wisdom, created biological diversity as a means to protect species; some individuals get immunity from predation or other harm while most of their kind perish, but the species survives to fight another day. Nature diversified our brains, too; there are as many...