Ready to read at a moment’s notice Just today I decided to make a list of my new favorite authors and was surprised to find that they were all women. What’s up with that? All my past favorites have been largely men, or in some cases women using male pen names. Same question applies. I…
Rules of Magic A couple of years ago, a fellow blogger and I discussed writing guest posts for each other. She writes in the combined fantasy/urban legend genre and hoped I could write a post about magic or how place contributes to a story. I decided to do it on how every story has rules,…
You know that feeling: itchy fingers, voices in your head, ideas backing up, the urge to sit and type like a maniac through a scene, a tirade of dialogue, a well-strung motif? That’s where I am at, about to break out in a rash of words. But there is a hold, the ever present disruption…
My last post was about brainstorming with my writer pal Marcy on a novel idea involving dementia and Alzheimer’s. Much of what is going into the book is based on my experience with my mother and my father-in-law who are both suffering from this kind of memory loss. Every phone call I have with them…
Talking the story into life Partner and group brainstorming: I use this technique in my creative writing class. We gather around the table and discuss ideas. After we settle on one, I step back and write down each plot point or character decision as they work through them and build a consensus. Now and then…
Since I am often inundated with numerous obligations I cannot put off because they are important aspects of my income-producing job, I need a few tricks to galvanize creativity. I have already written about several of them, but my most trusted approach to getting off the pot and onto the page is very simple. I…
My mind is full of words, but none of them are clinging to each other and the few that bump and hold together, however briefly, are whispering, and I can barely hear them over the din of all the phrases sloshing against each other in garbled conversation. It is not a creative day, not even…
Revisit yesterday. Never mind focusing on what terrible thing would come out of going back in time. Just what if I could? What things would I want to just observe. Imagine being able to cherish an event without worrying about all the other things that drag attention away because of worry or fear or weariness. …
