So, I was a little stuck as to what I was going to write today. I asked my four-year old what I should write about. “Nana and Grandpa,” he answered. That helped. I could feel the edge of an idea percolating, but I needed more — something to whittle down all of the possibilities and […]
Limiting Ideas: by Angie Powers Read More »
When I graduated from my MFA program, I had a couple of hundred pages and no better idea how to write a book than I did going in. I didn’t understand structure, I didn’t understand my process. I didn’t know how to go back and shape something out of the pile of pages I had
The Flow of Structure: by Angie Powers Read More »
When you’re trying to bring a story together before you’ve written it, that’s story development. Story development can often feel complicated, frustrating, and unsatisfying. In part, we’re trying to get at the heart of the beast by giving it bones when we outline, and in part we are often removed from our sense of playfulness
Improvising a Story: by Angie Powers Read More »
A scene at its most basic is simple action that occurs in one place and time. We’ve all heard that definition. But if you are reading this, you’re probably not really wondering what a scene is, but how to write a successful scene. And the answer to that is a little more complicated. I think
Writing Compelling Scenes: by Angie Powers Read More »
It’s raining here in the home of the BWW, Northern California, or as we like to say, No Cal. Actually, I don’t know who likes to say that. Today I am thinking about collaboration and ownership. You see, for a long time in my pre-screenwriting life, I had a really difficult time accepting someone else’s
Rain and Contemplation Read More »
I haven’t felt compelled to write lately. Is that bad? Can I call myself a writer if I’m not brimming with ideas and driven by the need to process every thought in writing? I used to feel that need. I felt compelled. Thoughts zapped into my head and came out my fingers as words in
Keep Verbing Until You Noun: Guest Blog by James Black! Read More »
To continue our discussion of the art of self-sabotage or procrastination, first we have to admit that we, as writers, sometimes want the aura of being a “writer” without any of the suffering that the title entails, all the hard work and self-doubt and isolation of being a writer. In his great book The War
Resistance is Futile! (part ii) Read More »
Writers get writers’ block. Happens to everyone at one point or another. It happens to some writers every day. Take me, for example. I struggle every day. Thanks to a recommendation from an old friend, I’ve been reading Steven Pressfield’s really great book The War of Art, which talks about resistance and how we
Resistance is Futile! (part i) Read More »
During a mentoring call in the Book Writing World, I had a breakthrough about writing detailed scenes, an AHA MOMENT that allowed me to internalize something I’ve known but didn’t quite know-know. Elizabeth’s exercise had us select a character and put him or her in a setting that the writer knows but the character doesn’t.
Show, Don’t Tell: Guest Blog by James Black! Read More »
Let’s talk pitch. It what you “do” when you’re trying to get an agent or editor’s attention regarding your finished book. You know what I’m talking about, the book you spent years on, perfecting, and now’s it’s ready to be read by the world and what’s more, embraced. In the Book Writing World, Elizabeth
Perfect Pitch: by Devi Laskar Read More »
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