Writing

You know the old saying, “Fake it ’til you make it?” I’ve gotten distracted by the three million other things I have to do each day, along with temptations like lounging with a good book or summer television, or just the sheer bliss of sitting on the couch with my…

I was reading an interview in Time with David McCullough (the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, if the name doesn’t ring a bell), and this question caught my attention: Q: We don’t write letters on paper anymore. How will this affect the study of history? The loss of people writing–writing a composition,…

I’ve been watching the BBC series of “Sherlock,” a modern update of the classic Holmes and Watson stories. (It’s fabulous, by the way.) One of the hallmarks of the Sherlock Holmes character has always been his relative arrogance. He has such absolute confidence in his abilities and has such a…

It’s not writer’s block. I’m not not-writing because I don’t know where the story needs to go, or because I’ve lost interest. It’s not because I’ve grown to hate my chair or my keyboard, or that I needed a change of scenery. The symptoms aren’t really in line with writer’s…

I’ve been talking about the difference between gathering information for specific reasons or for general information, because sometimes you need to know specific things and sometimes you just want a big, general overview. Digging into archives to dig out a specific name, a particular fact can be satisfying. Like a…

So, what’s brought this subject up, anyway? (Read Part 1 here.) I’ve been reading about the World War I era to get a feel for it for my Titanic-book sequel. I’m skimming my way through books and websites, picking up ideas and tidbits of (possibly) useful information, but I’m not…

I’ve had a few thoughts about research rummaging around my head lately, and thought I’d turn them into a blog post, but it turned out to be way too long, so I thought I’d try a series, instead. There’s a cozy mystery by Alisa Craig with a character famed for…

Did you know that Writing has a lot in common with any good Fantasy? You know the kind, where a hero faces enormous odds to go on a quest to save the world? Skills and Talents: Obviously every good hero needs a skillset. In fantasy, that would be sword play,…

I was reading a book the other day … a highly educated, informative tome with dozens of pages of footnotes and an index as long as your arm. It was written, needless to say, by a well-educated person, published by a well-known publishing house and, no doubt, read over by…

Okay, not really. I’m exaggerating. I AM a writer. I enjoy it, I’m good at it, I even make some money from it, in the perfect blend of vocation, hobby, and inclination. I’m the first one to admit that the joy of easily flowing words is incomparable. That blissful state…

Do you do your best writing in the morning? Or at night? This is one of those topics that can raise strong opinions. People who write in the morning say that their brain is fresher, more creative. Their energy level is high, and they can crank out their best work…

In case you’ve forgotten, here’s one of the cardinal rules of writing: Don’t Forget Your Audience. This should be obvious. If you’re writing for children, there will be language or graphic scenes that you don’t need to detail. If you’re writing romance novels, on the other hand, you can go…

As instructed as part of Weronika’s Page-A-Day Challenge, I’m setting up one post to track my progress. My “victim” for this challenge is an old manuscript I’m resurrecting. If you don’t already know, I’ve got three novels written. My first, “After Happily Ever,” was finished back in the mid-1990s and…

Let me ask you a question. Do you like being told what to do? Or do you prefer making your own decisions? I wrote recently, when discussing the “Show, Don’t Tell” rule, that writing is about taking the reader on a voyage of discovery The minute I typed that, my…

I sometimes think my life would be easier if there was just one kind of writing that I enjoyed doing. If all I loved was copywriting, I could focus on polishing my marketing technique. If fiction was the all-powerful muse, I could immerse myself in prose and telling great stories.…

Do you know  the most powerful tool a writer has in his or her arsenal? Telling a story. I’m not talking about a fairy tale that starts with “Once upon a time” and ends with “happily ever after.” I’m talking about the kind of story that immediately makes your readers…

Here’s the other thing about my Dad that confuses me. (Well, there’s more than two, but I’m trying to focus, here.) When he reads for pleasure, he likes mysteries, or those adventure kinds of stories where the hero saves the world because he uncovered the enemy’s secret plan just in…