Every Day, A Little Death Knell It seems as if death is all around lately. My wonderful, kind neighbor passed away last week. I’m going to a friend’s mother’s funeral on Saturday. These events have me thinking about how many ways death influences my writing. The story I’m currently working on centers on a dead […]
And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going: by James Black Read More »
We talk about arc & plot & structure in the Book Writing World like we talk about the weather: every day. Angie teaches an ongoing class about it. And in the ongoing mentoring and workshop classes, we are forever seeking solutions to our structure and plot problems. Elizabeth and Angie were kind enough to create
Smart Arc, Smart Art: By Devi Laskar Read More »
Elizabeth cooked up something new last night during the Book Writing World mentoring class. It’s a short and sweet twist on pitch. Ideally, your pitch should be 2-3 sentences in length, contain some elements of conflict and most importantly, have a suspenseful “hook” – a tease of what’s to come. When you write your query
Baker’s Dozen: by Devi Laskar Read More »
My day job involves, among many other duties, directing the writing center at the university where I work. One of my greatest challenges in that area is training and supervising the college students who serve as writing tutors. They’re intelligent and skilled writers themselves, but to effectively help other writers requires that they acknowledge the
Read Like a Fool: by James Black Read More »
The other day, I was procrastinating-cum-researching and I stumbled across a figure. I know only a little bit about her, but I suddenly had the thought: this is the subject of my next novel. At my friend Dorothy’s insistence, I sent myself an email about it, and I requested a book from the library. Then
Three Kinds of Courage for Writers: By Elizabeth Stark Read More »
There are famous writers who end (or ended) each day in the middle of a sentence, so they would know exactly where to pick up the next day. Hemingway was famous for the way he left the sentence hanging overnight. It is a wonderful way to avoid writer’s block. I wish I knew how to
Middle of the Road in Thought: by Devi Laskar Read More »
As I write my novel, Shadow Gardens, I am grappling with the problem of transitions. I end one chapter in the “present” action and then flip to a scene in the protagonist’s “past.” Sometimes, the connections are quite clear, and often, the connections between the chapters are only clear to me – as my trusted
Ending on an image: by Devi Laskar Read More »
For as long as I can remember, everybody (family, teachers, friends, frenemies) has asked me “What’s wrong?” I scowl a lot, and they assume something’s wrong. All I’m doing is thinking, but somehow my uninviting expression invites interrogation. My parents, especially my father, had a better way of asking: “Where are you?” He knew I
Revis(it)ing: by James Black Read More »
Tomorrow I lose. That is, daylight savings time ends before the sun rises, and I will be losing an hour tomorrow when I (along with most of the United States & Canada) set my clocks ahead. That’s an hour to sleep or an hour to dream or an hour to write. Still, I’m not that
Spring Forward: by Devi Laskar Read More »
Honestly, this blog should have Elizabeth’s authorship. 🙂 In last night’s mentoring class in the Book Writing World, we had an important discussion about character arc, and what that meant to each individual writer when he or she talked about “character arc.” Elizabeth asked, “What engages you, frustrates you, confuses you about character arc? Where
Questions of Character Arc: by Devi Laskar Read More »
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