The stories of Bryan Young

I've been out of commission for a while, out of town, and catching up on deadlined projects. I went to Star Wars Celebration VI and Dragon*Con, speaking on panels at both about Star Wars, writing, and books. Now that I'm back and starting to catch up (slowly but surely) I thought it would be the best time to come back with another piece in the writing series. As you know by now, I'm sure, these "rules" (more like guidelines) come from  a list of fifty rules I've been collecting as a writer over the years . These have been helpful to me and I thought they might be helpful to you. Originally, I thought the list would be enough, but as I've talked to people I've realized that I have a lot more to say about each one of these than just what's written. Like I say, these are guidelines based on my personal philosophy on writing, and that's subject to change at a moments notice. I'm constantly learning as a writer and I don't ever plan o...

I'm heading out to Star Wars Celebration and Dragon*Con next week and wanted to get another installment of these posts elaborating on my " 50 rules and tips for writers " out before I left. This series is all about fleshing out each individual rule and offering myself (as well as other writers) some food for thought on the process of writing. You can read Part 1 here . You can read Part 2 here.  You can read Part 3 here. These next three all generally have to do with dialogue. Dialogue is very crucial in prose and screenwriting. And giving characters unique voices is a challenge for any writer, even the best of them. These next three rules in the series are, more than anything, here to make you think differently about dialogue and how it looks on the page and what you can do to make it better. Sometimes, considering a different perspective is all you need to put you on the right path. 15)   Monologues are for the theatre. Break up long stretches of dialogue wit...

I'm continuing my series on the " 50 Rules and Tips for Writers " that I began a couple of weeks ago. These were 50+ rules and tips I'd collected over the years as a writer. As I think of one or read one in a book, I'll put it down in my notebook and save it for later. I've been collecting this list for well over a decade and it will continue to grow as time goes on.  This series is all about fleshing out each individual rule and offering myself (as well as other writers) some food for thought on the process of writing. You can read Part 1 here . You can read Part 2 here.  You can read Part 4 here. These next three words are largely for use during the editing process. You can't obsess about self-editing while you're writing a first draft. Sure, you want that draft to be as clear and concise as possible, and as close to a final as you can get, but you need to focus on putting down each and every word that will allow you to put down the next word...

I'm unenrolling a bunch of books from Amazon's KDP Select program so I can make them available on the Nook soon and I still had plenty of promotion days left. So, for their last hurrah as Amazon exclusives, I thought I'd make them free for today and tomorrow. If you want them for free, now is the time to grab them. 1)  Confessions of an Independent Filmmaker: Part 1 - Missy : I've been working on a series for a while now of my adventures through the film industry. The first part of the series describes my desire and love for film and documents the first film I made. And how I built an entire spaceship in my mom's backyard and how I ended up in Park City showing the film at festivals. ( Part 2 covers failed projects and proposals and Part 3 covers my time as a guerilla marketer at Sundance, Part 4 is forthcoming, but documents my adventures dealing with producers and agents in Hollywood as a screenwriter).   But Part 1 is a free taste right now. 2) Letters ...

Last week, I opened up a new series on the rules of writing based on my original " 50 Rules and Tips for Writers. " It was very popular and people really seemed to like it, so I'll certainly be keeping it up. You can read Part 1 here , Part 3 here , and Part 4 here. The three rules we'll be talking about are primarily for screenwriters. As much prose writing as I've done, I've probably done as much screenwriting. (The next episode of Confessions of an Independent Filmmaker will be highlighting a lot of the misadventures I had in the Hollywood agent and screenwriting system.) Over the years I've talked to a lot of readers, mentors, and screenwriters that seem to back up these philosophies. There are a few important things to point out when screenwriting, though. The first is that everyone has a different style of writing a screenplay, but the format is largely the same. If you want to compare and contrast, read Alex Proyas' early draft for Dark Ci...

Over the weekend, I had the distinct pleasure of being a guest at the very first Salt City Steam Fest in Salt Lake City. It was a steampunk gathering where costumers and genre fans got together to learn about a lot of different things, show off their costumes, and have fun.  I was able to do a writing panel with Howard Tayler from Schlock Mercenary . Howard and I have been circling each other professionally in time and space for many years, but this was the first time we'd actually, officially met. He's a very excellent person, a scholar, a gentleman, and a very knowledgeable writer. His podcast, Writing Excuses , which he appears on with Brandon Sanderson, Dan Wells, and Mary Robinette Kowal, is something worth checking out if you're interested in writing. I feel like I learned as much as I taught and met a lot of people who were new to my material and  eager to check it out. For those who missed me, I have another signing this weekend. The Mediocre Show cont...

I had the honor of being a guest on the Star Wars Book Report podcast to talk about writing, Star Wars, and Operation: Montauk. The first guest on the show is Tom Kane, the voice of Yoda on The Clone Wars. I've interviewed Tom a few times myself and he's always a fascinating guy to listen to. Then they get into my interview. You can check out their website here. During the interview, we talked a lot about the difference in writing for different mediums: documentary, feature films, journalism, novels, and so on. We also talked at length about my upcoming children's book about the history of presidential assassination, currently being illustrated by Erin Kubinek . Afterwards, they reviewed the book. A couple of quotes from the review: "It grips you from the beginning. It's wall-to-wall action." "It's very pulpy. It's like a Flash Gordon serial." "He hit the bullseye with this. This is the novel he wanted to deliver and i...