As writers, we are just like Greek mythic sculptor Pygmalion and our books are like Galatea to us. We are attempting to create the most perfect book for our readers. In a recent mentoring workshop in the Book Writing World, Elizabeth drew from the author Gilbert Sorrentino’s piece, “The Moon in Its Flight,” located in […]
Pygmalion, revisited Read More »
In the Book Writing World, Elizabeth has discussed time and again the “big” ingredients it takes to write a complete narrative/story/book/memoir. Sometimes it can help to put the main ingredients into a single sentence, a sort of pithy recipe. This is different from a PITCH that is used to, well, invite/entice/beg agents and outsiders to
As writers, we sometimes struggle with creating “an inner life” or a range of emotions for our central characters. In an effort to have stories that reflect realistic people with actual problems, we as writers could inflict our obligations and inconveniences on our characters. In a recent Book Writing World mentoring class, Elizabeth instigated an
In the Book Writing World, we have learned this about story structure: “The CRISIS is when the choice is made and the CLIMAX is when the choice is acted on.” That sounds good. Now, to the difficult question: What are your chracter’s choices? What happens after your character makes the first set of choices? How
Every writer has voices inside his or head, angels counseling us what to write, what details to include, what generalities to omit. Most of us don’t actually hear these voices…but we aware of them as we grapple with character and plot development, and try to finish writing our books. In the Book Writing World, Elizabeth
Governing by Committee Read More »
Our “job” as writers is to describe, describe, describe. This means that we as writers have to take what we are imagining and place it on the written page – share it with our readers. Sounds easy enough. But writing is hard and often we leave out something that could turn an otherwise okay description
Sum of our opportunities Read More »
First Loves Most of us get writers’ block. A lot. Then, inexplicably, the urge to clean the kitchen or watch bad TV takes over and before you can blink twice, the sun has set and another day has disappeared… The key to overcoming the experience of not being able to write is to keep the
Today is the “ides” of January, 2012. A good a day as any to start my new job as “Blog Editor” at the BWW. Elizabeth asked me recently, during our BWW workshop class, to go back to my favorite books, as a way of solving a problem that I’m having with plot in my novel-in-progress.
Back to the Future, BWW style Read More »
Dear Bay Area Writers: Come sit among the redwoods, the wild turkeys and the deer in Berkeley and create a solid structure for your book (fiction, non-fiction–anything narrative) or screenplay. Learn more here about the first retreat intensive in our Second Saturday Series. So, what do you have to do to enter to win? Subscribe
Win a Free Spot in the Retreat Intensive this Saturday in Berkeley Read More »
I asked the members of the BWW classes to describe what goes on in the Book Writing World, and here are some of their replies: “Monday Master Class: zero in on brush strokes, in the way an art student might examine, and therefore learn from, an impressionistic painting: what blending of light and dark was
What the Heck is Going On Here? Read More »
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