So, the author Chris Ryan and I have been talking about writing spaces. All the photos on my new website are of my office in the house my husband and I built, not including the subfloor and stacked lumber and unfinished drywall and shims and foam insulation where the trim… Read more“Writing in your space”
Tag: Fiction Writing Advice
Catching up on 2009 in 2010
Happy New Year 2010 to you all! I hope you had as peaceful a New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day as we did here at our house, ensconced by the fire by a lovely (dying) tree all lit up, towers of new books next to everyone’s chair, sleeping cats… Read more“Catching up on 2009 in 2010”
Pulp Rag: Following the details to inspiration
Now, I don’t mind chopping wood. And I don’t care if the money’s no good. You take what you need, and you leave the rest. —Robbie Robertson, “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” Let’s talk about inspiration. My husband and I are selling a house right now. (And on… Read more“<em>Pulp Rag:</em> Following the details to inspiration”
Pulp Rag: Getting the ghost tiger by the tail
A friend and I decided this morning that I should write a ghost story for the holiday season, a sort of Christmas Carol where Scrooge turns out to be right. Let’s talk today about premise. We were going on and on about how much we just love converting our living… Read more“<em>Pulp Rag:</em> Getting the ghost tiger by the tail”
Pulp Rag: Explicating the gnat
Let’s explicate that piece of Carson McCullers dialog. There’s tons to learn from it, but today we’ll just focus on conflicting agendas and how she rings such a realistic, poignant note by keeping her characters firmly and clearly grounded in their separate agendas. Doctor Copeland: “I will not be hurried…. Read more“<em>Pulp Rag:</em> Explicating the gnat”
Pulp Rag: Weighing point-of-view techniques
So let’s talk some more about Point-Of-View. Because this is quite a sticky widget. The simplest, commonest, most straight-forward POV is third-person limited. And there’s a really good reason for this. Because it WORKS. Once upon a time it was first-person limited. However, first-person got kind of beat to death… Read more“<em>Pulp Rag:</em> Weighing point-of-view techniques”
Being in the right place at the right time
NaNoWriMo has come and gone, and there are now millions more written words in the world than there were a month ago. Aspiring writers all over America—all over the planet—are sitting in front of their masterpieces wondering what they have to to do to them before they can start querying… Read more“Being in the right place at the right time”
Hey, Craig!
the Craig Bartlett interview
I met Craig Bartlett in 1980 on the The Evergreen State College Cooper Point Journal, where he was staff cartoonist and photographer and I was production manager. We were young, barely 20, and following in the footsteps of Lynda Barry and Matt Groening, who’d been running the Cooper Point Journal… Read more“<em>Hey, Craig!</em><br> the Craig Bartlett interview”
Linking to the Nobel Prize
Boy, I’ve been sick as a dog all week and am just catching up with work. And guess what I discovered this afternoon? Some of you agents giving advice on Twitter? I really don’t think it’s such a good idea to insult aspiring writers in public. Particularly a writer you’ve… Read more“Linking to the Nobel Prize”
Pulp Rag: Messing with each other’s head: dialog in action
Shall we see if I can get through a whole post about dialog talking about. . .dialog? I follow Twitter. Not enough, apparently, to see everything that goes by, because lots of people use it as a mirror they glance into constantly throughout the day assuming—I guess—the rest of us… Read more“<em>Pulp Rag:</em> Messing with each other’s head: dialog in action”