by Kerry Schafer Last month I shared some of my thoughts about intentions, suggesting that it’s a good idea to have some and see where they take you. And then I tacked a little afterthought on the end, saying how next time we’d talk about Action Plans. I still maintain that intentions are lovely and wonderful…
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Engineering a Mystery
By Beth Groundwater I’ve taught a number of workshops at many different writing conference, library programs, and to writing groups, and one of my favorites is “Engineering a Mystery.” I apply my engineering background from my first career to help fledgling mystery writers build some scaffolding for their projects, or formulate recipes for their mystery…
Being in Community with Other Writers
By Pamela Nowak In the twenty years I’ve been writing (well… writing with publication as a goal), there are two things that I’ve come to learn are vital: learning craft and being in community. Since many of us often talk about craft in our blogs, I thought I’d talk about community and how important it…
Talk to the Paw: The Revision Process
Recently I’d been under the gun… my own gun, really… to make revisions to a manuscript my agent was expecting sooner rather than later. I enjoy the revision process because it’s my chance to dig in deep and pull the story out from cracks and crevices it may have slipped through along the way. Making…
Reading Like a Writer
By Lori DeBoer We read for many reasons—to be entertained, to be swept up in a story, to be transported into an interesting world, to laugh, to cry, to learn, to gain insight and to be inspired. But when we become writers, we need to read like a writer. We become active readers, slowing down…