Writing is the interesting process of getting the unconscious and the creative parts of your brain to do work. This often involves silencing the (also essential) editing part of the brain until the words are on paper, and yet making this section you’re writing fit nicely with the rest of the story, and making it […]
Advice to New Writers Part Two
This week, I follow up to last week’s advice to new writers. Whether you’ve been writing two decades or two seconds, it’s critical to keep working to get better. Here’s a few pointers I’ve learned along the way. Length. A story should be as long as it needs to be to tell the whole story – […]
Tension and Suspense
This week has had a lot of waiting. Waiting for the agent to get back to me to confirm receipt of my manuscript. Waiting for the Finalists call on Monday, on the off-chance I get it. And all the tension, the suspense, the wondering – all this waiting has got me thinking about how to […]
Raise the Stakes
The difference between a good story and a great one, the difference between a book you work through slowly and one you can’t put down, is largely the stakes. What do I mean by stakes? What your character or characters have on the line. Rather than a routine case, give your detective one that is […]
Reading Journal
I was talking to one of my writer friends the other day about writing (what else would writer friends talk about?) and heard about a very cool idea. A reading journal. It’s a simple notebook you put next to you when you read and make notes on what works (and what doesn’t) in the books […]
The Right Details
The best gift I’ve ever been given in my life cost five dollars. Yes, you read that right. I was fifteen, and trying out my brand-new culinary skills in my mother’s kitchen. Making large messes. Burning things. And learning what made up delicious food, and how to prepare it. I’d stir batters with my mother’s […]
Tics and Word Choice: Resource
Last week I wrote a post on voice and “tics,” the unconscious lazy word habits we all get into as writers. This week I found a lovely article by science fiction writer C.J. Cherryth on Writerisms that goes into more detail on what to avoid. I have an issue with a few of the rules […]
Voice, Tics, and Understanding
I had to un-learn a lot from college – in real life, you don’t get extra points for using big words when small ones will do. You can’t skip class and still make A’s (I know, I know). And the last thing in the universe you want is to sound like everybody else. Today’s post […]
Bridge & Backstory
I was thinking about backstory this morning, and playing around with a metaphor in my head about holding your cards close to your chest. The cool metaphor, of course, is to compare fiction writing to poker, but I don’t actually know much about it. On the other hand, I was holding bridge cards from the time I was eight.
