I was just talking with a lovely, talented author about a novel she’s working on. She’s having doubts and we were brainstorming how the story could unfold. I started suggesting solutions, rattling them off…..as I tend to do. And she laughed and said, “But this is so practical.” “Well, yes. I am practical. Sometimes solutions […]
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Quick Take: Get into your body
Our minds are crowded little places and we too often sit at our computers our breaths shallow and shoulders riding high. Or, after hours spent alone in your head it feels like an echo chamber. Yet your inner knowing is connected to your heart beat, your breath, your bones. The more you write from your […]
Read the rest of this entry »Writers need to stay curious
“The great affair, the love affair with life, is to live as variously as possible, to groom one’s curiosity like a high-spirited thoroughbred, climb aboard, and gallop over the thick, sun-struck hills every day. Where there is no risk, the emotional terrain is flat and unyielding, and, despite all its dimensions, valleys, pinnacles, and […]
Read the rest of this entry »Quick Tip: Commas
I see this mistake often in manuscripts so just wanted to pass along this reminder about using commas to separate adjectives and after independent clauses. From the Purdue OWL: “Use commas to separate independent clauses when they are joined by any of these seven coordinating conjunctions: and, but, for, or, nor, so, yet. […]
Read the rest of this entry »Characters We’ve Never Met Before
Fiction readers want to meet story people that they cannot meet in the ordinary world. They also want these people to possess complicated world views and unexpected moral codes. The cast members of Mario Puzo’s The Godfather are splendid examples of this. It’s one of the first novels that depicted mafia families in a sympathetic […]
Read the rest of this entry »The Ocean has a Voice
One of my favorite aspects about the Oregon coast is its sound. The gulls shrieking and caterwauling overhead, the restless waves crashing in or thundering in during a storm, the wind, the movement of tides. But before I lived near the Pacific, the earth’s largest ocean, I lived in the upper Midwest. The ancient shores […]
Read the rest of this entry »Quick Take: beware of thumbnail sketches
Avoid thumbnail sketches or police blotter descriptions whenever a new character steps into your book. (The suspect was a Latino male, 6 feet, medium build, scar on left cheek, tattoo of snake on right shoulder, wearing black jacket, jeans and sneakers)This technique tends to feel contrived especially if used too often. A character doesn’t need […]
Read the rest of this entry »Give Sorrow Words
Give Sorrow Words There was a shooting in a nearby high school yesterday. A student dead along with the shooter. Details are still sketchy, motives unknown. This follows shootings in Las Vegas the previous day with two police officers gunned down while they ate lunch, a felon in possession of weapons, a suicide pact. Yesterday […]
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