In the Write

At every writing workshop I teach, I learn something. Or relearn it. Recently with a group of twenty earnest adults in a small library room I was reminded of something I had forgotten: it take courage to write. Courage to put down the first sentence. Courage to keep going. Courage to share what you’ve written […]

It’s time to admit what you know in your bones:  there’s a deep conspiracy against you finishing your novel. The conspiracy  is all-encompassing. It’s like gravity, invisible but with the same confining effects.  You can feel its weight, feel its drag, and it comes from all directions. A sick pet. A car that needs an […]

“If you want to be a writer, you gotta be a reader,” someone (me) once said.  But who has the time to do both?  Here’s a solution that works for me. When I’m stuck on a novel–frozen up, blocked, or otherwise suffering a complete loss of confidence –I get my ass to a library.  Preferably […]

Pretty sure it was Margaret Atwood who said, generally:  “Writing the opening chapters is exciting.  Writing the last chapters is an exhilarating rush to the end. It’s the middle part that’s hard.” If you look closely, you’ll see that she’s divided the novel into a three-part structure–which is pretty much the way screen plays are […]