How do you start a story? How do you end a story? These can be extremely vexing questions for any writer. But one thing anyone can remember when you hit this wall is that you were actually taught the best way to begin and end nearly any piece of writing in Middle School. Remember? Tell them what you’re going to tell them. Tell them. Then tell them what you told them. That, of course, sounds super-pedantic and boring, which is…
Well, once again it is the time of year when I’d like to post up how my writing progress has gone for the year (and, if you’re curious, you can compare this year’s progress update with last year’s here). Progress updates are a funny thing. They imply a need for quantifiable achievement, and it is definitely true that I do like to tabulate things, probably more than other people would consider healthy (hence, the bottom of this post with my…
So. Sometimes, reading other writers’ blogs, I’ll read about the sort of research another author might put into their story. Maybe they’ll (1) talk about traveling to a relevant city (not exactly within reach for most of us), or pouring over Google maps of a relevant city (definitely sensible – sounds like a lot of work though – so, maybe a reason to avoid contemporary settings if at all possible?). Or (2) they’ll call up or interview an expert or…
Last year, after I had finished posting all of the installments for my first SSCS (Because the Desert is a Great, Broad Beast of Memory),I put up a post talking about different aspects of the story and/or the writing process, in the same vein as the pieces authors sometimes do when, for example, they’re doing a blog tour to promote their new book. Now that all of the installments have been posted for my most recent SSCS, How to Catch…
As I am writing this, I’m getting close to a hand-off point, when I’ll have just wrapped up one of my latest SSCS’s (the Serial Stream-of-Consciousness Stories that I work on periodically as a break from my more directed writing) and will then be needing to add a new SSCS onto my docket (I usually have three running at any given time). That begs the question: What should I use as my seed for the next one? The story ideas…
Okay, it’s time for another post about writing (because I like to write about writing, apparently). This one is about story ideas! Story ideas are lots of fun and can feel really precious, but are actually pretty darned easy to come by. This, of course, is not news. It seems like nearly every writer’s blog I’ve read has some variation on the idea that story ideas are the easy part of writing (the actual writing is way more work!), or…
Okay. We’re closing in on the end of the year. Which is the first year I’ve had this blog. Which I started in large part because I wanted a place to be able to talk about my writing (and my garden). You’ve seen my garden, so now, the least I can do is tell you how my writing’s gone this year. The short answer is: Not as great as I was hoping. But, I didn’t do nothing. So, I’ll give…
They say write the book you want to read. The problem with that is, when you’re having a bad day and things just aren’t jelling, you really just want to be able to sit down and read that book, not have to go through the slog of writing it.
Okay, I said last writing post that I like revisions. And recently I experienced a good example of the importance (for me*) of Targeted, Mid-drafting Revisions. There are lots of kinds of revisions, and I mostly adore them all (what’s not to love about effective problem-solving?), and so I thought it would be nice to share an example of this particular kind. * Important disclaimer: I don’t want to try to give any instruction about when a writer should or…
Okay. So. I’d really like to write a blog post on something to do with writing and/or my stories. But it seems…like it would be inappropriate at this particular juncture? I’ve got nothing published so far, except for half of my first Serial-Steam-of-Consciousness Story (SSCS; on this blog). And realistically it’s going to be years before any of my work is noticeably more available than that. (Okay, to be perfectly accurate: In high school, 2 or 3 of my poems…