Punctuality Rules!

Writing

Calisthenics for the Brain

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,…

Tips for People Who Hate to Write

Last time we talked about the reasons people don’t like to write. Today, we’re going to talk about ways to help them. Dictate into a recorder rather than typing. Maybe it’s the physical act of getting words out of your head and onto paper/screen that’s too intimidating. So just try…

WWSD?*

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…

Writer’s Break

Well, I sat down at my keyboard today and blew the virtual dust off of my current manuscript. The time-stamp on the document is 10/22/2010 12:24 PM, which means it’s been seven weeks since I opened it. Seven weeks. I’m stunned, too. Every year I flirt with the idea of…

Research or Background: Part 3

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…

The Eggs of Oppression

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…

Reader, Not a Writer

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…

Page-a-Day Update

So, you might be wondering how I’m doing on the Page-A-Day Challenge? It’s been two weeks since it started, so we’re on day fourteen and I’ve added 23 pages to my manuscript. True, they’re double-spaced pages but still. I started with 179 pages with 48,358 words. Currently? 202 Pages 55,372…

Who Are You Talking To?

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…

Page-A-Day Challenge

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…

One Page a Day

I’m not usually one to sign up for writing “challenges.” Externally imposed deadlines or goals always seem so … artificial. But, then … Weronika Janczuk made an excellent point. We discussed mind tricks for a little while, and the prime example included the “page-a-day” trick. Instead of giving yourself a…

Are You a Bad Writer?

I’m a bad writer. I don’t mean that I write badly. You can disagree, of course, but I don’t have any real doubts about my writing ability. My ability to string words into sentences, sentences into paragraphs, is pretty reliable. I have weaknesses, but even in unfamiliar writing territory, I…

Poetry Reading

It’s the 5th Annual Blogger’s Silent Poetry Reading. I’ve participated in 2006, 2007, 2008 over at my knitting blog andin 2008 here. Then last year gave you the Very Special Treat of sharing one of my own poems with you. it went over so well, I thought I’d try it…