While I'm away in Europe, I'm posting some old articles from the archives and some link round-ups. Today's selection is on writing tips of various stripes. Here you go: Saturday Writing Tip: Scenes Saturday Writing Tip: Observation Tips for Writing: Overcoming Resistance Tips on Writing: Writing by Hand Tips on Writing: Building Momentum Writing Tip: […]
I was at a gathering of writers last night (Portlanders, we meet every last Monday of the month for Literary Libations, join us) and Angela Sanders, an accomplished mystery writer who is doing very well with her books (can you say number one on all Kindle sales?) was talking about her career. Angela talked about […]
As I've announced at least fifty million times in every place I could possibly think of, I'm busy rewriting my novel for my new agent, Erin Niumata, which is why things have been quiet around here. But as I've been concentrating fiercely on my rewrite the last couple of weeks, I've realized some things that […]
This weekend, I started a new series called the Saturday Writing Tip and wrote about scenes. One of my loyal, longtime readers, J.D., who I adore, wrote a couple of comments. In one of them he noted how the author Lee Child had said, "Write the slow parts fast and the fast parts slow." Which […]
On Monday, I began this series on prepping to write a novel. In the first post, I talked about the tools you'll need to get going, and if you head on over to that post you can get caught up. In today's post, I'm going to talk about the idea and the process–what to […]
So, I've written three novels now. The first was a crappy mystery that never went anywhere (though recently when I found a copy of it, I realized it was better than I remembered.) The second was my MFA novel and its not half bad, it's just got a plot that doesn't quite work. I promised […]
I know. It's very shocking. When I suggest to clients and students that they may want to try writing by hand, there is sometimes outright rebellion. To most writers these days, writing means writing at the computer, whether that computer is a desk version or a laptop (my own preferred option). Okay. I hear you. […]
Odds are good that since you are reading this blog, you might want to write book. But how, exactly, do you write a book? How do you take an idea and make it into a book? One word at a time. And once you've got the word, you turn it into a sentence. You […]
I often tell people that writing every day is an excellent way to build momentum. And then they look at me blankly and wonder why in the hell they need momentum, since they are writers, not rocket engineers. I tell them (and I'm telling you now) that momentum is what gets the novel (or memoir, […]
In order to be a good writer, you must avoid passive voice whenever possible. Yawn. This topic has all the excitement of a rainy day in January. But, the thing is, it's true. Passive voice can sink a sentence faster than the Titanic. Okay, okay, I'll quit with the metaphors that are as dumb as […]
