We’ve been suffering through a series of punishing heatwaves here in the Pacific Northwest and I’ve been longing for a rollicking thunderstorm to sweep through, spit out icy rain, drench the place and cool the air. Oh, to be able to change the weather. Which brings us to verbs, because they add oomph to your […]
Read the rest of this entry »Author Archive
It’s like my whole world is coming undone, but when I write, my pencil is a needle and thread, and I’m stitching the scraps back together. Julia Alvarez
Read the rest of this entry »Quoting Margaret Atwood
“When you are in the middle of a story it isn’t a story at all, but only a confusion; a dark roaring, a blindness, a wreckage of shattered glass and splintered wood; like a house in a whirlwind, or else a boat crushed by the icebergs or swept over the rapids, and all aboard powerless […]
Read the rest of this entry »Quick take: Aim for Messy Emotions
Storytelling must give readers an emotional experience. To bring about emotions in your readers stir in thorny situations that bring up messy emotions. By messy I mean the ones your characters have difficulty managing, perhaps would prefer not to feel or even acknowledge. Messy can also means complex–the character is feeling a troublesome brew of […]
Read the rest of this entry »In case you missed it….
Writerly gatherings from the internets: 1. 20 Amazing Writing Residencies You Should Apply for is here. (This list is from 2014, but the residencies are still viable.) 2. Sadly, the final Scratch magazine is online. The topic, fittingly, is The End. Sigh. 3. How to Master Anything, at Any Age. The 9 concepts […]
Read the rest of this entry »From Michael Cunningham: Literature is an act of seduction
The writer of fiction, no matter how edgy or unorthodox, is stuck with a simple and an unalterable truth. Literature is, inescapably, an act of seduction, whether the writer hopes to seduce millions with a story of an adolescent vampire in love, or a handful of readers, who are willing to take a darker, strange, more […]
Read the rest of this entry »Crutch Words
Check out my article about crutch words over at Insecure Writers Support Group. Sleuthing out your crutch words will make you more secure. Promise!
Read the rest of this entry »In Case You Missed It
Gathering of writerly tidbits from the internets Did you miss BEA this year? Think inspiring writers need to attend? Think again…here’s agent Janet Reid ‘splaining things. Last month I attended a luncheon at the Pennwriters Writing Conference. Lucky me, it was the amazing Jane Friedman talking about using social media to sell books. She’s a […]
Read the rest of this entry »No regrets
Every day we slaughter our finest impulses. That is why we get a heartache when we read those lines written by the hand of a master and recognize them as our own, as the tender shoots which we stifled because we lacked the faith to believe in our own powers, our own criterion of truth […]
Read the rest of this entry »
