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Joe DeRouen
Joe DeRouen

136 Followers

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Writing Good Dialogue

How to bring your characters to life — Good dialogue won’t save a bad story, but bad dialogue can ruin a good story. Good, realistic dialogue that enhances a story rather than stops it in its tracks will bring your characters to life and is paramount to writing successful fiction. But what is good dialogue? Good dialogue is…

Writing

7 min read

Writing Good Dialogue
Writing Good Dialogue
Writing

7 min read


Published in About Me Stories

·Pinned

About Me — Joe DeRouen

I’m a father, a husband, a writer, a teacher, a reader, and more. — I was born on a mountaintop in Tenn…oh, wait, that wasn’t me! I was actually born and raised in a very small town in Illinois called Carthage, moved to the massively big city of Dallas, Texas when I was a teenager, and now reside in the medium-sized city of Rogers…

About Me

2 min read

About Me — Joe DeRouen
About Me — Joe DeRouen
About Me

2 min read


Published in Introspection, Exposition

·Pinned

Bullied But Not Buried

I was bullied as a child. I grew up in the tiny town of Carthage, Illinois, and went to a small school where everyone knew your business. I was the fat, shy kid with a mole on my face, so it was pretty much a given I’d be bullied. …

Bullying

8 min read

Bullied But Not Buried
Bullied But Not Buried
Bullying

8 min read


Jan 19, 2022

Betrayed by Facebook Algorithms

My battle with Facebook’s awful algorithms and how they can do better — On December 20, 2021, I received a notification from Facebook that I had “violated their community standards.” …

Facebook

3 min read

Betrayed by Facebook Algorithms
Betrayed by Facebook Algorithms
Facebook

3 min read


Published in The Junction

·Mar 15, 2021

Going Over

A short story about professional wrestling and what comes after — The roar of the crowd always got Tommy Buckley’s blood pumping, but he’d never before heard a crowd quite like this. This was Wrestlepalooza, baby, an event he’d dreamed of being involved in all his life, and not only was he involved, he was in the effing main event! …

Wrestling

10 min read

Going Over
Going Over
Wrestling

10 min read


Published in Introspection, Exposition

·Feb 5, 2021

Raised by a Narcissistic Mother

A tale of growing up with a textbook narcissist for a mother and an abusive alcoholic for a father. — My mother was a narcissist. Everything was always about her, and I mean everything. It just took me 22 years to see it, because my father was an abusive, violent alcoholic. I was too busy hating him to see her constant manipulations and gaslighting. My father was awful, to be…

Narcissism

7 min read

Raised by a Narcissistic Mother
Raised by a Narcissistic Mother
Narcissism

7 min read


Jan 27, 2021

My Shelf Comes to Life

How my hobby grew into something that entertains hundreds of people worldwide daily — I collect Mego 8" action figures, and have for many years. I’d always wanted to set up silly scenes with the figures and post them onthe internet, but for some reason I never did — until September 27th, 2020 came around, that is. …

Toys

3 min read

My Shelf Comes to Life
My Shelf Comes to Life
Toys

3 min read


Published in Introspection, Exposition

·Jan 19, 2021

Haunted

(Though the names and some details have been changed, all of this really happened. Except for the parts that didn’t.) “Daddy’s killing Mommy,” I said, shortly before my father snatched the phone from my 4-year-old hands and shattered it against the wall. That’s one of my earliest memories. Not knowing…

Fiction

22 min read

Haunted
Haunted
Fiction

22 min read


Jan 22, 2019

My Four-Month Patreon Experience

I’m a freelance writer and novelist and have published three dark fantasy novels and a collection of short stories. My day job is that of a substitute teacher, which unsurprisingly pays much better. Like most novelists, I’m not getting rich anytime soon, but I’ll never have the wildly successful career…

Crowdfunding

3 min read

My Four-Month Patreon Experience
My Four-Month Patreon Experience
Crowdfunding

3 min read

Joe DeRouen

Joe DeRouen

136 Followers

Joe is a freelance writer and novelist.

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