I don’t know how long I’ve been writing a monthly blog for RMFW. But I save my drafts in a Word file and right now there’s over 90,000 words in the file, which means I’ve written a whole book’s worth of posts. At this point I worry I have run out new things to say…
I’ve written numerous blogs on the positive aspects of writing, But writing fiction is obviously not all unbridled satisfaction and joy. At times the process can be frustratingly, agonizingly difficult. So misery-inducing as to inspire lines like Ernest Hemingway’s classic remark: “Writing is easy. All you have to do is sit down at the typewriter…
It was one of the lowest points of my life. My career was in tatters and I was in a job that I hated. I felt like a total failure. Then I had a herniated spinal disc that required emergency surgery. I’ve since learned that anesthesia, or maybe it’s the trauma of surgery itself, causes…
For weeks, a friend of mine has been stressing about her deadline for her next book. She mentioned that she felt she needed to finish the first draft by the end of the year to make certain she could turn the book before it’s due on July 1st. I was startled. At most, it takes…
When an idea for a book first comes to me, I generally have a fairly good idea of who my characters are and what their conflicts and challenges are going to be. But I don’t always know their names. Occasionally, they arrive with a name that instantly fits them. More often I have to give…