Writing advice is everywhere. Good writing advice? Not so much. My sole point this month is to get yourself connected to Collaborist. Here’s your portal: https://collaborist.org/ I highly recommend the YouTube chats. Here. Sample topics: And on and on. The co-hosts are Jason Buchholz and Ben LeRoy. The chat is always calm, low-key, and grounded…
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…
In 1980, I moved from Los Angeles to Denver and took my second job in journalism, working for The Rocky Mountain News. A friend worked there. He was someone I knew from my youth in the suburbs of Boston. My friend, Phil Reed, turned me on to mysteries. And I started reading them with abandon….
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…