Last week, in my Monday evening Craft Class, one of my writers was sharing that she is surprised at how well her writing group is responding to the material she is creating for her current project because as she’s writing it, she keeps thinking it is just terrible. I got all excited. “That’s that voice!” I said. “It comes […]
Here’s a three minute video about concrete character desire, with an example from The History of Love by Nicole Krauss. It’s powerful to see what a character wants played out in concrete, literal terms, demonstrated in the actions he’ll take to accomplish this desire. Try it yourself! I also want to talk
Character Desire: A Quick Lesson Read More »
Christine Hyung-Oak Lee posted a gripe list recently on Facebook. She’s the fiction editor of the Kartika Review, a “national literary arts magazine that publishes Asian Pacific Islander American fiction, poetry, creative non-fiction, and art,” and she’s been weeding through the slush pile. The way to have publishing success–besides being willing to collect rejections and
View from the Slushpile by Christine Hyung-Oak Lee Read More »
My book group met Sunday night to discuss Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore. We noticed that, as in The Goldfinch, the resolution seems to hinge on the narrator becoming a writer and writing a book—the very book we are holding! Although I loved this in Penumbra, the rest of my writing group did not. Perhaps it
Why Characters in Books Become Authors Read More »
Our garage flooded a couple of weeks ago in the heavy rains our county so desperately needed (and still needs). This is a new house to us, so we did not know that a river would seep under the side door and swiftly cross the garage. The garage has been the secret weapon of our
Touchstone: What Do You Love When No One Is Watching? Read More »
We’ve spent several weeks looking at obstacles to creating a daily writing habit and how to overcome them. This is the last in that series: temptations that pull us from routine. First, there are all the things that can seem more important than writing. This can vary from the pile of dirty dishes to a
Temptations That Pull Us From Routine Read More »
Last week, I confessed something. The story of my book thus far. Not a story I’d have created for it, though it’s a roller coaster of disappointed expectations and continual hope, and in that sense not badly plotted. I suppose. This week, I have an addendum that I think is important for all writers. It’s
A Writer’s Ambition Read More »
Jane watched the kids running back and forth on the lawn. She wondered if they were scared of the looming black cloud in the distance. Beginning writers often lean heavily on what I call mediation: He saw/ She noticed/ I watched/ I thought . . . the rest of the sentence then constitutes the action
1) Accept that voice. It just means you are doing your work. It doesn’t mean you are doing it badly or wrong, despite the content of the voice. It means you are taking risks, and the part of you that does not like to take risks is protesting. Protecting, even. Ignore me at your own
Five Steps to Overcoming Fear and Judgment in the Face of Creativity Read More »
We’ve been talking here and in the blog about overcoming challenges to a daily writing habit, and today we are going to talk about overcoming resistance, a challenge I’d venture to guess all of us face from time to time, and some of us face from moment to moment. Resistance comes in many forms. Fear.
Five Ways to Overcome Resistance Read More »
Please confirm you want to block this member.
You will no longer be able to:
Please note: This action will also remove this member from your connections and send a report to the site admin. Please allow a few minutes for this process to complete.