“Reading a book is like re-writing it for yourself. You bring to a novel, anything you read, all your experience of the world. You bring your history and you read it in your own terms.” – Angela Carter Reading for Writers: Reading sustains us. Doesn’t it? It inspires us. Sometimes, as BWW member Leslie Rodd […]
Instinct v Intellect: What the Writer Must Know Writing is a dance between the instinct and the intellect, between vision, dream, a sense of story and the power of the mind to make sense, to figure out, to order. Both are magical and necessary ingredients in creation. But they tend to battle each other—at least
Doors Open: Craft Your Draft, Intellect V Instinct, and a Free Class Read More »
I’ve been looking forward to this day from the moment I realized that summer was not going to be the open expanse of time and respite I’d imagined. And now it is here. But here, too, is the feral novel I sent off and then ignored. Here are a few lines of direction from my
This week I finished reading a complex, important, heavy novel called A Constellation of Vital Phenomena, by Anthony Marra. The subject is Chechnya during the war (1994-2004) and the web of characters affected by this war. It was a deeply moving novel, and an inspiring work in terms of its construction and prose style, how
The Books You Are Meant to Write: A Guest Blog by Leslie Rodd Read More »
All of these come alive, of course, with examples. So next week (or in my class at Book Passage on Saturday), examples will follow. Also, please post your own 100 words of dialog (including description, action and gesture, of course), below and I will edit/ comment on it. Or you may just share it for
7 Key Principles of Dialog Read More »
Last week, we were discussing openings in the blog and newsletter, and long-term BWW member Melanie Lee wrote this as a response. It was a thoughtful and important response that deserved its own spot in the blog-line. Post your own response in the comments below: Do first lines matter to you? What do you look
First Lines, a guest post by Melanie Lee Read More »
Elmore Leonard’s tenth rule of writing is: “Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.” Excellent advice for standing out in a slush pile or on crowded shelves. But of course, readers are not uniform and so in the end we do well to write for ourselves, toward what we love. Or
Key Lessons About Opening Pages Read More »
BWW’s own Judith Nasse reports from the Taos Writer’s Conference: “Wally Lamb told a great story, pertinent to all of us who are submitting to magazines. He said when he was first starting out he submitted stories to umpteen magazines. One story got a rejection letter from “Mississippi Review.” A bit later, without realizing he’d
“I just want to write this summer,” we say. And then summer is upon us, with swim lessons, sudden emergencies, that exercise regime we also meant to implement, the family or friends who visit so seldom we can’t help but turn days over to them, or weeks. Work piles up. The days are long and
Summertime Writing: Strategies for Productivity and Leisure Read More »
We had a glorious day last Saturday, BWW Inspiration Day, sitting peacefully on the deck of our retreat, gazing at the garden, vineyards and the mountains beyond, from the the shade of a lone redwood tree that towered over the little house. We began with the rules for writing–examining several sets, as I wrote about
The Rules for Writer’s Block and Why You Need to Know Them Read More »
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