Straight talk from the sisters about blood, sweat and ink
Welcome to part two of Releasing Your Inner Poe. If you missed part one you can find it here. With fall rapidly approaching I’m hard at work on a few projects with dark gothic themes, but more on that in a future post. Since I’m struggling with the task of establishing the right balance of …
Continue reading “Releasing Your Inner Poe, Part Two.”
When Callie Armstrong wrote her post on Friday about writing groups and whether to join one or not, it brought to mind a day-long, pre-convention writing workshop I attended in March before the Left Coast Crime Conference. You might want to re-read her post before going further. Oh, boy! At the workshop, there was quite …
Continue reading “Writing Groups: On the Other Hand . . .”
Nancy Drew had a huge influence on my growth as a young woman, and something I’d totally overlooked until recently. A number of powerful and successful women have cited her as a role model, and in the 1950s, something we sorely needed. I can show you excerpts from Home Economics text books encouraging us to …
Continue reading “The Secret Ghosts of Nancy Drew”
Gothic literature is delicious and deadly and lately I’ve been thinking a lot about it. It’s a literary form most people either love or hate. I fall in the love-it camp and I’m always hunting for great examples. I enjoy the old masters and finding new writers who rework the old tropes in fresh ways. …
Continue reading “Tips for Releasing Your Inner Poe”
I have a dear friend and wonderful writer and critique partner who has changed all characters’ names in her WIP multiple times. All except for the real, historical people–thank goodness. Bless her heart. I am confused sometimes trying to remember if it’s George or Jim or somebody else this week. It has to be hard …
Continue reading “Twenty Ways (and More) to Name or Not Name Your Characters”
I read the first book of The Hunger Games series when it came out six years ago. Then I read the next one when it was released. Before the third and final book of the series arrived, I pre-ordered the box set. And put it on my shelf. For years. It’s not that I didn’t …
Continue reading “Reading for Writers 101: Is Your Story Ending ‘Right’?”
As an educator for forty years, I heard many teachers complain that the kids weren’t the same any more. They had short attention spans, and if you weren’t “entertaining” them you’d lose them. Many blamed television and video games and of course there was the generally agreed upon lack of respect for authority. The kids …
Continue reading “A Lesson From Mary Poppins: Dosing Out Description”
I was on a panel at this year’s Public Safety Writers Association Conference talking about issues and challenges in writing a series. As a member of the panel, I didn’t get to fully expound on any one question and, in fact, was not asked to respond to every question. There’s only so much time. As …
Continue reading “Series Writing: Not Just One Foot after the Other”
We all get tips from well-meaning people who truly believe the wisdom they’re imparting. The most common writer advice I hear is this: You don’t need a detailed outline. Don’t revise mid-draft; just write. It’s okay if your first draft sucks. This advice works for a lot of people, but if this isn’t your process …
Continue reading “Common Writer Advice Revised”
“Ripped from today’s headlines.” Remember the expression? The TV show, “Law and Order”, right? I often think of that show when people who don’t write fiction ask me where I get my ideas for stories. Where don’t I get ideas? They beat me about the head until I capture the idea in a computer file …
Continue reading ““Ripped from Today’s Headline” or Where Do Writers Get Ideas”