In The Joy of Music, Leonard Bernstein wrote about Beethoven: “Imagine a whole lifetime of this struggle, movement after movement, symphony after symphony, sonata after quartet after concerto. Always probing and rejecting in his dedication to perfection, to the principle of inevitability. This somehow is the key to the mystery of a great artist: that…
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Writing Effective First Lines
It is #IndieApril in the Twitterverse, and RMFW has a robust list of independently published authors. While I plan on spending all month promoting this talented group of writers, I wanted to talk specifically about how they approach the art of first lines. There are countless ways to start a story, but the best is…
Rocky Mountain Writer #166
Aimie K. Runyan – Writer of the Year Finalist Aimie K. Runyan gives credit for the ideas for her last two books to fellow members of RMFW – Jamie Raintree gave her the nugget that led to Daughters of the Night Sky and Sean Vogel spotted a news clip that led to Girls on the…
One Is the Loneliest Number
We often talk about writing as being a solitary pursuit. We celebrate the lonely artist in a garret, poring over the work. The image of the scribe using their own blood as ink features prominently in the mythos. Then there’s NovelRama. If you missed it, you missed a four-day party of people at all stages…
Deep POV Lesson 8 – Anchoring Words
One inherent problem with DEEP POV is the possible awkwardness of being deep in Scarlett’s POV and having to add what’s going on in Rhett’s head. Of course, Scarlett is not omniscient, and neither is your book’s POV. So Scarlett can only interpret Rhett’s thoughts through her five senses: Scarlett knew Rhett was angry. His…