I love reading about the creative process. So many things effect the act of creation. There is place, time, deadlines, atmosphere, and a sense of purpose. But a recent article covered the idea that emotion has an effect on results and even on what area of creation the artist should focus on based on that…
We fiction writers attempt to create authentic character experience, largely from events we have never experienced. Of course, we often draw from memories to bring verisimilitude to our writing, but just as often, if not more so, we write of things we have never seen, touched, emotionally felt or responded to. Writers attempt to create…
I read an article about the various distinct cultural nations within the United States and found it very useful for determining the underlying influences of characters in fiction. In this article which made use of the work of Colin Woodard, Matthew Speizer provides (This map shows the US really has 11 separate ‘nations’ with entirely…
Every writer needs a strong posture. I recently watched a TED talks video, Amy Cuddy’s “Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are.” As a teacher, I understand the dynamics of body language. I read my students’ body language all the time and modify my approach to match or alter their attitudes so the class runs…
No story goes along smoothly for the main character. In fact, how they respond to adversity is how we get attached to the people in the novels we love. If they don’t struggle to get what they need, we won’t want to read to the end. There are innumerable ways for conflict to occur in…
Getting my logs in a line I visited +HannahHeath’s blog recently and read her great post on writing loglines for novels. It galvanized me to work at mine a second time. So here’s my loglines for all my Student of Jump books. In Time Passed, Students of Jump Book 1 Logline: An accidental inventor of…
Find at Amazon, Smashwords, Kobo, Barnes & Nobel. So you have some story or novel planning to do. You’re feeling a bit pressed for time or pressed with concern for writer’s block. Try a classic story line and build your story around it. A. A table has been dropped by your character’s house. It was…
Save, save, save. My hard drive crashed at the start of February. It was not pleasant, but this is what I had done that made it far from heartbreaking. I had backed up all my files in September on an external drive. Should have done it more often than that, but I wasn’t worried because…….
