Why Stories Matter, Especially Now
We are in tumultuous times and it is easy to dismiss art, music, writing, maybe particularly writing fiction, as a luxury. I think it is anything but.
Category: Writing
Review: Understanding Show, Don’t Tell
As often as Show, Don’t Tell is drummed into us, it’s not always clear how to do it. Telling is sometimes necessary, even desirable in a sprawling novel, and the impulse to perform corrective showing can lead to page-count creep…
Into, Well…the Abyss
Into the Valley, by Ruth Galm, a 272 page novel, might be of interest to aspiring novelists for two reasons; one, it’s a terrific novel. And two, Ms. Galm’s manuscript was rejected over sixty times before she finally got it…
What to Write in Troubled Times? Whatever You Want.
For the past two years, I’ve been steadily working on a middle grade novel about a lonely 12-year-old girl in small-town Wisconsin who meets four siblings with a dangerous fantasy world. While I was under no illusions that I was…
Friday Feast, The New Years Edition: Books are Back! Writers’ Manifest for 2017, The Art of a Nation Will Outlast its Governments, Using Scene Cards to Eliminate Struggling with a Blank Page, 11 Cheapest Destinations
We at Dead Darlings are aware that it is 13 days past New Years, but some of us are just recovered from our annual Bacchanalia, and others are so sad with S.A.D. (Seasonal Affective Disorder) that it’s taken us this…
Writing, Fast and Slow
It wasn’t until I joined in National Novel Writing Month (Nanowrimo) a few years ago that I finished a full draft of a novel for the first time. For anyone unfamiliar with Nanowrimo, it’s a national challenge to write a 50,000…