“This deserted warehouse sure is creepy,” Shaggy said. “Yeah, it is. Now let’s split up and see if we can find the Ghostly Fisherman,” Fred said. “Ruh roh,” Scooby said. [several adventures later, usually involving Shaggy and Scooby running for their lives] “Let’s see who’s been scaring all the tourists away from Devil’s Cove,” Fred said. He yanked the mask off the Ghostly Fisherman. “It’s Barney Rumblefish, the real estate mogul,” Fred said. “I was trying to scare everyone away, so I could buy out old man Farnsworth for cheap and build a new luxury hotel in Devil’s Cove,” Rumblefish said. “And I would have gotten away with it if…

I explained in my last post why I didn’t start writing fiction till my late 40s. Sometimes I think my life’s motto should be, Better Late than Never. Anyway, once I decided to give this whole making-up-stories thing a try, I had to figure out how to get started. Just put some words on the page? Well, OK, but as I said in my last post, creative writing is a craft. And crafts have to be learned. So, how does one learn to write a novel? Especially if one has a day job and doesn’t want to spend a couple of years and many thousands of dollars earning an MFA?…