Why Not to Work on Your Novel
I assume if you are reading this blog, you either have been or currently are in the middle of the long slog that is writing a novel. I am. I’m in year three, and still I don’t see an end….
Category: Writing
Friday Feast: In Praise of Rejection, Writers Who Give Up, Things Writers Know, Perfect Practice, and Six Debut Novelists Look Back
Fall is the time of year when I most feel the pressure to get the words on the page and revise the stories that I allowed to languish all summer (or since last year). Maybe it’s because October is a…
Whether the Weather
I usually try to do what Elmore Leonard says. If plied with wine or office supplies, I might even admit to having a fantasy about him being my life coach, going to the gym with me, telling me how to…
When Less Really Is More: What Comics Can Teach Novelists
Consider the Comic where what’s not on the page is as important as what is. So says comic artist and writer Scott McCloud in his deceptively simple book, Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art.
Watson, Come Here. I Need You.
Peter Capaldi, who plays the titular lead on Doctor Who at the moment, was asked at a recent convention why he thinks his alien character keeps coming back Earth. Without a pause, the actor replied, “Budgetary reasons.” It was an…
Discovering the Big Easy: Writing What You Might Never Know
“Write what you know”—and its many opposing suppositions—is perhaps the most commonly touted fiction-writing maxim; it has been defined, re-defined, debated, refuted, defended, and all the while handed down to fledgling writers as the ultimate golden rule. A few years…