Bitter truth # 4. Starting is the easy part. I’ve known many writers, myself included, who began books we never finished. The reasons for not continuing are, of course, myriad. Some of these concepts or plots just didn’t hold up. Some were too skimpy or too complicated. Too silly or too much of a downer. […]
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Bitter Truth
Bitter Truth: the publishing world is not a fair playing field. At some point in childhood most kids learn that life is often not fair. No matter how that realization comes about, when that lesson is learned, it’s rarely learned through observation, but rather experience. Perhaps you were a major acting talent in 10th grade, […]
Read the rest of this entry »Bitter Truth # 2
Bitter Truth: being good is probably not enough Since I was part of the Baby Boom, my grade school class held 43 students. During those years through the eighth grade, I was usually the smartest person in class or vied with John Emmanuel for that number one spot. But we all knew that John picked […]
Read the rest of this entry »Plan B
Jessica P. Morrell © Everyone needs a Plan B. Criminals, if they don’t want to get caught, create a Plan B; movie directors formulate a Plan B when they shoot various versions of the same scene or alternate movie endings; and writers need a plan B so that they’re always facing forward, always moving ahead. […]
Read the rest of this entry »Breathe. Pay attention and tell the truth. ~ Maxine Hong Kingston The writer within you has seen it all—the majestic and the senseless and the silence of a star-filled midnight. She stores a landscape of sensory elements—bruised and cobalt skies, mountain trails and waterfalls, a sleeping child, a lover’s skin, an ocean’s shore, a snowfall, […]
Read the rest of this entry »The Call of Story
Jessica P. Morrell Sometimes just being alive feels like raw flesh-vulnerable, responsive, irritable, in constant danger. Those are the times when I most need to sense my place among other people, to hear their stories and know they are mine as well. I badly need to be sure someone can hear me; I need to […]
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(a new short column whereby I dispense harsh truths about the writing life. Because sometimes we need harsh) Writing can be an inky, bottomless dungeon of frustration. As it should be. Rewards that come easily aren’t always the most satisfying. Most activities in life will not require multiple revisions, begging for a chance in the […]
Read the rest of this entry »Connecting the Dots
Jessica P. Morrell© “Writing is a highly complex act that demands the analysis and synthesis of many levels of thinking.” ~Donald Graves When I’m editing a manuscript I can separate it in one of two categories: the projects that feel like I’m reading a coherent, publishable story and the ones that feel like I’m reading […]
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For the fifth annual Summer in Words Writing Conference until June 12 Keynote speaker is best-selling author Chelsea Cain. Inspiration, craft and information on the real business of writing. Dates are June 15-17. Located at Hallmark Inn & Resort, Cannon Beach Oregon. Details are here. Join us. You’ll be amazed at how […]
Read the rest of this entry »Moment to Moment
Sometimes the smallest moments remind us of how fortunate we are to be writers. I’ve been thinking about this ever since I was down in Tallahassee last weekend teaching at a writing conference. My plane arrived late on Thursday night and Roberta, a member of the Tallahassee Writer’s Association, picked me up at the […]
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