Certainly, this is more difficult than writing an essay. You will envy those youthful writers who not only did it in their twenties (or earlier) but got published—and famous. To keep from becoming too discouraged, you’ll have to look for writing icons who didn't blossom until later in life. Now that the envy is under... Continue Reading →
And now for something completely different… a conversation! I’m excited to interview Kourtney Heintz, author of the recently published novel "The Six Train to Wisconsin." I’ve been following Kourtney’s blog for more than a year. I was honored that she chose to interview me about CreateSpace when she was deciding what publishing route to take. ... Continue Reading →
You have to be a bit mad to be a writer. In fact, you even have to hear voices. This has become clearer than ever as I reach a new phase in my current novel. I had intended to continue with my plow-ahead writing on the way to reaching the 40,000 words promised as my... Continue Reading →
[If you're here just for the ROW80 update, skip to the bottom. Otherwise, enjoy.] "Everything I know about writing I learned from watching TV." This may sound odd coming from someone who watched very little TV as a child. (Really. Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color was it.) Nor is the statement 100% true. I... Continue Reading →
I first wrote this post over the weekend, in, shall we say, the heat of the moment. I went back to it several times to make sure that it was more than just the cri de couer of a wounded author. After several edits, I think I have turned it into something reflective rather than... Continue Reading →
Here's another reason fiction writing can be so difficult: Often, as a character develops, you realize that flaws, conditions, or some other thing you thought was integral to the character's personality just doesn't make sense, and you have to kill it off. This is not the same as killing off the character, which I don't... Continue Reading →
As you'll recall from English class---or, as they like to call it now, at least until high school, "Language Arts" class---fiction has two major elements: character and plot (yes, style and point-of-view matter also, but today I'm talking about the two biggies). My major shortcoming as a writer, which also could be thought of as... Continue Reading →
