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Deadlines are Useful
Do you find deadlines inspiring or stressful? I have recently set some deadlines for myself for finishing a couple projects. For me, deadlines aren’t inspiring or stressful; they are useful. One deadline was this weekend, September 15. The last couple days of last week, I realized the deadline was near and, WOW!, did I get…
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Trust the Writing Process: Of Anteaters and Spider Webs
I am working on a first draft of a story and am reminded of a couple things. First, you must write the story. You can plan all you want, but the story comes alive in the actual writing. A small thing this week: my main character is afraid of all bugs. That includes insects and…
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Cloak, Cape or Hood: Writing Consistent Fiction
In this January 6, 2013 NPR interview, John Sandys talks about inconsistencies in movies that were released in 2012: Well, I think ’cause “Men in Black 3” travels back and forth in time, it means you’ve got a whole host of factual mistakes as well, which it opens itself up to. One which jumped at…
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Fiction Techniques for Nonfiction
All those fiction techniques you’ve spent time mastering — dialogue, description, setting, mood, scenes, characterization, and plot — are equally useful in writing nonfiction. Yes, there is more leeway in nonfiction than in the last twenty-five years, but publishers still value creative nonfiction or fiction written with fiction techniques. For example, I have a new…
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Explore Your Characters: Be Surprised
You know you should try writing your story in first v. third point of view, but for some reason, you put it off. Why? Because you’ve gotten a first draft of a scene or chapter and you just want to keep going. It’s exactly the feeling that elementary school children have: “Why do I have…
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42: Harrison Ford’s Example of Preparing for an Audition
I am interested in writing a nonficiton book and talked to an editor about the idea this week. She is interested. Hurrah! But she needs a full proposal that includes a table of contents and a sample chapter. In other words, I have to do some–no, a lot–of work, on spec, before I get a…