Last week I mentioned that my fiction intensive class (with author Lydia Netzer) would be critiquing the first 25% of my manuscript. Everyone said they loved it. Many offered specifics on what they loved and why, as well as what drew them in. On the other hand, every student found issues that will require significant…
Category: On Writing
Puzzling
I am a huge jigsaw puzzle fan. Oh, it’s been a while since I put one together on my kitchen table; I seem to be too busy doing something else these days—writing. You know the drill. Worldbuilding, working out plot, defining and enlivening characters who you then “put up a tree and pepper with rocks.”…
Know Your Characters
If you are writing fiction, you must know your characters better than anyone else does. It’s helpful to get a good start on that before you plug them into the plot. Why? Because you can’t use them to their (and therefore your) best advantage if you don’t know everything there is to know about them…
The Long, Long Wait
So you submitted your work to a magazine or agent or publisher, and now the long, long wait begins. Every day, you check your e-mail (maybe multiple times) or dash to answer the phone. The time drags out, passing so slowly it feels like it’ll take forever for that editor to get back to you….
How Writing Will Make You Question Everything
(or “Please Ignore My Browser History”) I’ve heard it said that a good exercise for writers is to ask “What if.” What if a team of scientists went to Mars and one of them got accidentally left behind? What if a white journalist in 1960 Mississippi decided to write an expose on the treatment of…
Rejection, Continued
I mentioned a few posts ago the rejection of my short story “Upshot” due to its use of Spanish words instead of using a language native to isolated Guatemalans. I went on to describe how I had sent forth queries intended to draw on resources among my friends new and old for Mayan replacements. Now…
Wanted: Murderers
Go ahead. Murder my draft. Slash its prose to ribbons. Get stabby with a red pen and make it bleed. No, seriously. I know you think I’m flexing my sarcasm muscle, but I’m not. If there are weaknesses in my work-in-progress, I want—need—to know what they are. That’s why critique sessions are my friend. To…
Don’t Fear the Rowing Machine
You’ll probably think this is ridiculous, but when I first joined my gym, I was afraid of the rowing machine. It’s true. I watched people using it, saw them sweat on it, and heard their puffs/wheezes. It looked so hard, I thought I’d never be able to last more than a minute on that thing….
In Search of Demons
(Warning: May contain spoilers.) What do you think of when you hear the word “monster”? Chances are the first thing that comes to mind are creatures like vampires, werewolves, Frankenstein’s creation, ghosts, Godzilla, or some otherworldly beast. Dictionary.com gives a long list of definitions like “a legendary animal combining features of animal and human form…
Confessions of a Writer
One of my classmates submits some of the most beautiful prose for critique. In his last class submission, his character drives through small rural backwater towns with no traffic lights, where the gas pumps still sport analog dials. The character speaks of being a voyeur, seeing only that moment in time, a snapshot of the…