Sometimes I long to read the way I used to, back in the days before I became a writer. That was actually such a very long time ago I have trouble remembering it. But the point is that once you start writing, all of a sudden reading is different. No longer do I just sit […]
….is that it is easier to get published than it is to stay published. This according to Larry Brooks, writing in last Sunday’s Oregonian. "Deep in the black heart of every writing workshop instructor resides a dirty little secret: We are praying that no one asks when our next book is coming out." So says […]
Actually, you didn’t ask for it, I forced it on you. Well, you did seem to be enthusiastic. So here they are, drumroll please, the first two pages of writing exercises: Techniques for Generating Ideas and Getting Started The Da Vinci Device I know you are all rushing over to find out what the hell […]
I learned the Da Vinci Device from one of my MFA mentors, Melissa Pritchard. (And let me note here, this was probably long before the dreadful novel The DaVinci Code came out and ruined the name.) The DA Vinci Device forces you to write in the three different styles of description. Take an object or […]
Techniques for Generating Ideas and Ideas for Getting Started Writing Generating Ideas MAKE LISTS: The best way to do this is to do it fast. Number a page from one to ten or twenty and go! Drawing from your own life: 1. Jobs you’ve had 2. Careers 3. Passions 4. Obsessions 5. Quirks 6. Pet […]
Last week I wrote a post about being critiqued. Today I was talking with my friend Suzanne about this getting critiqued and I thought a bit more about it. What we talked about was that feeling you have when you are confident in your work, and in you step sprightly to meet with the agent […]
I saw Patti Smith last night at The Bite of Oregon. I’m in complete and total awe of how incredible she is. It was a cloudy day, with some rain showers (you would not believe what a crappy summer we’ve been having here) and so we almost didn’t go. But the rain held off and […]
Jason, over at Blog Catalog, asked how to stay on track with a longer project. He said he had started several novels and tended to lose interest by the second or third chapter. Losing interest in a long-term project happens. I tend to get an idea, get all excited about it, start a notebook and […]
It has come to me in a blinding flash that A. this blog needs something and B. that something is writing exercises. Eureka! (Or as my late father would say, E-Da-Ho! He was from Idaho, and he always said the way the state got its name was when the Native Americans saw the light coming […]
I don’t care what anybody says, its hard to have your work critiqued. I know, I know, its not personal, and we shouldn’t take it as such, and blah blah blah. Do you know anybody who doesn’t take critiques personally? And yet, learning to be critiqued is an integral part of the writing process, because […]
