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…
Stuck for a way to begin writing? Describing a photograph may break a stalemate. Friend and muse, Katherine Key, snapped this compelling photo along a Western Colorado Trail. Inspired by this photograph, a description can be literal, as shown below. Or lyrical, as the final example suggests. Either approach will get the juices flowing. A…
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…
No, not the setting of your book. The setting in which you write. When I started writing fiction, I could write anywhere and any way. Longhand or on a keyboard. At work or in a hotel while traveling. By myself or with co-workers or family in the same room. In the early morning, late at…