In honor of having given up sleep last week (apparently after fifty years you’ve had all the sleep you need), I’m going to introduce you today to my grandmother, to whom I was very close and who gave me most of the instructions that now guide my life. She didn’t… Read more“11 Things My Grandmother Said About Writing”
Category: A Number of Things You Should Know
107 Things You Should Know About Being Published
We’re jumping in the Way-Back Machine today. This was the very first of my numbered-list posts—from January, 2010—and the comments are still some of my favorites! You’re not going to get rich. You’re probably not even going to be able to pay your bills. In fact, money is going to… Read more“107 Things You Should Know About Being Published”
23 Inevitable Questions to Ask Yourself
at the End of NaNoWriMo
Guess what I spent the Thanksgiving holiday doing? That’s right—giving myself repetitive stress injury writing my annual 45,000-word children’s book for my son. I didn’t start until halfway through November this year, so it got pretty darn busy toward the end there. Now I have a completed book (hurrah!), but… Read more“23 Inevitable Questions to Ask Yourself <br>at the End of NaNoWriMo”
2 Tricks for Breaking Writer’s Block in One Day
Last week I talked to a friend I hadn’t seen in awhile who’s writing a memoir. She told me she was having a lot of trouble with it—she can’t make herself write about a particular incident she seriously needs to write about. She asked me if I had any advice:… Read more“2 Tricks for Breaking Writer’s Block in One Day”
How to Revise Wrong, in 3 Easy Steps
And now that you’ve plotted wrong, characterized wrong, and written wrong, even 9 ways to find the time to write. . .let’s talk about how to sit down with that baby and revise it wrong. Be obsessed with letting your language ‘breathe’ This is code for: “Be unwilling to revise… Read more“How to Revise Wrong, in 3 Easy Steps”
How to Characterize Wrong, in 3 Easy Steps
So we know how to plot wrong. Now this week let’s talk about how to handle character wrong. Because this one is trickier—character is a trickier element of fiction while, at the same time, an even more essential one than plot. It’s possible to get by on pretty darn thin… Read more“How to Characterize Wrong, in 3 Easy Steps”
How to Plot Wrong, in 3 Easy Steps
Can you believe it’s June already? You’d never know it from the weather on the Northern California Coast. It’s been pouring rain for days. It’s practically the Pacific Northwest. So I’m going to spend the month of June talking about how to do everything backward. And I’m going to need… Read more“How to Plot Wrong, in 3 Easy Steps”
3 Reasons Dialog is Important, 3 Reasons It’s Not
We’re talking about the pros and cons of the three aspects of scenes: description, action, dialog. Now, as we all know, dialog is the mainstay of modern fiction. Raised in a world of television, radio, and telephones, we as an industrialized race are familiar with nothing if not the power… Read more“3 Reasons Dialog is Important, 3 Reasons It’s Not”
3 Reasons Action is Important, 3 Reasons It’s Not
You know how everyone’s always telling you “Show, Don’t Tell”? Well, that means “Write Scenes, Not Exposition.” So we’re spending three weeks covering the three aspects of scenes: description, action, dialog. Last week we did description. Next week we’ll do dialog. And this week we’re doing action. Action is important… Read more“3 Reasons Action is Important, 3 Reasons It’s Not”
3 Reasons Description is Important, 3 Reasons It’s Not
This topic came from @__Deb, and it’s such a good idea I’m going to extrapolate from it for two more weeks, covering all three aspects of scene: description, action, dialog. “Show, Don’t Tell.” Write scenes, not exposition. Description is important because: Details create the life on the page If there… Read more“3 Reasons Description is Important, 3 Reasons It’s Not”