“Everything I learned about human nature I learned from me.” Anton Chekhov So, in November, I’m going to have surgery on my left hip. I’ve never had surgery on anything before, never been checked into a hospital (not even for birthing my babies). So this is a bit daunting for me–but I’m ready, because I’m […]
Here's my weekly round-up of writing prompts from my Tumblr blog: #205 The fog wafted and drifted around buildings and through streets, masking and silencing everything in its path. So it was a shock when it lifted and….. #206 Today is President’s Day in the United States, and lot of people (but not all) have the day […]
Just in time for Mercury Retrograde, I am launching into the first big rewrite of my novel. (More on Mercury Retrograde in a moment.) The background A green door in Pezenas, France. It's a doorway to rewriting, get it? I started this particular novel last year in late September, and finished […]
This is the blog post on viewpoint I promised in my last post, wherein I talked about how I judged a writing contest and nearly all the entries had problems with sketchy world building and viewpoint. Getting viewpoint wrong sinks your manuscript from the get-go. Send an agent a story rife with viewpoint violations and […]
Please welcome guest poster Julie Duffy today. Julie and I connected on Twitter and I'm glad we did! She is a writer and also the creator of A Story A Day–the extreme challenge to write a story every day in May. (And guess what–you can start any time. If you get going now, think how […]
The dichotomy between writing fiction and music makes my brain do happy dances. It also drives me insane.
Reading a manuscript yesterday, I was reminded that, while most writing teachers (myself included) insist advocate that students write in scene, there are also instances when you should not write in scene. Sometimes writers dramatize events that don't warrant a full scene. And then the writing just seems flabby. Not much is happening, but there's […]
And for the next victim person who has volunteered to have her work critiqued, welcome Jessica Baverstock. You may remember Jessica from her wonderful guest post here a few weeks ago, or you may know her from reading her great blog, Creativity's Workshop, in which creativity herself speaks. Jessica is a writer who recently moved […]
I've just finished making a pan of lasagne for my son's birthday dinner tomorrow. (Brief aside: on Twitter, the spell check wanted me to spell it lasagne, which I thought was correct. Here on Typepad, the spelling gods insist it is lasagna. But I sticking to my e ending. I like e endings.) I'm sort […]
