The Write Way
The Write Way: Writing The Novella
While I’m waiting for my real life to resume and house-sitting for friends, I’ve been working on a novella. A hundred pages is the perfect project for this interlude in my life. Short, like my stay here, and easier to interrupt if I don’t finish the book before I move again. The novella, tentatively titled…
Read MoreThe Write Way: Every Writer Needs a Mind Palace
Watch Sherlock Season 2: Making a Modern Hound on PBS. See more from Masterpiece. Last night I watched the newest Sherlock Holmes on P’BS Masterpiece Mystery, an updated version of The Hound of the Baskervilles. I love this series. Sherlock and Watson are a fabulously dysfunctional pair, Sherlock clearly suffering from Aspergers and Watson recovering from…
Read MoreThe Write Way: The Secret Writing Life of Author Diane Chamberlain
A warm welcome to Diane Chamberlain and many thanks for her willingness to share writing tips today. I’ve interviewed Diane at Southern Exposure before, but today Diane has agreed to talk more specifically about the way she writes. Her newest book The Good Father just arrived at bookstores, so I thought it would be fun…
Read MoreThe Write Way: Setting Up A Series
This week, in addition to meeting my new grandson, I also met my new cover. One of these I adored on sight. (I’ll let you guess which.) Sometimes that happens. The new cover is for the first book in a series, One Mountain Away, which debuts in August. The series is titled Goddesses Anonymous. This…
Read MoreThe Write Way: Back Story, Front Story, and Nothing In Between
Picture this: You’ve splurged on a hefty hardcover you know you’ll spend weeks reading. You’ve given the bookstore your hard-earned cash because you expect the author to keep his/her unspoken promise. Within these pages a story will unfold,one so riveting that by the time you finish, your life will be transformed–or at least during the…
Read MoreThe Write Way: All Those Things That Happen Before the Book Begins
Galen McGee, peakdefinition.com This week was a milestone in my career. I turned in One Mountain Away, which is the first in the Goddesses Anonymous series set in Asheville, North Carolina. Wherever you live, I’m sure you heard the cheers. One Mountain Away is scheduled to come out in August of 2012, and while I’ve…
Read MoreThe Write Way: Daily News, Daily Blues, Pick Out a Story Every Time You Choose
Okay, who remembers Tom Paxton? Remember his song Daily News? “Daily news, daily blues, pick up a copy every time you choose. Seven little pennies in the newsboy’s hand. . .” Seven little pennies? Newsboy? How old is this song, anyway? Apparently it’s this old: “Civil rights leaders are a pain in the neck, can’t…
Read MoreThe Write Way: Using Everyday Events in Fiction
I just got off the telephone with Amazon. My life work this week has been to track down a package I ordered in July. I had to find out why it arrived in town but was never delivered to me. Unfortunately Amazon and all the carriers involved have kept an excruciatingly painful moment-by-moment account of the…
Read MoreThe Write Way: Writer’s Paralysis? How to Get Moving Again
I can count on two questions from any Q & A session. The first? Where do I get my ideas? The second is whether I’ve ever suffered from writer’s block. I’ll confess I used to snicker whenever I answered this one. “Not me, thanks. If I’m stuck I just keep working until I’m not stuck anymore.” …
Read MoreThe Write Way: Sometimes We Just Need A Hand
You’re moving right along on your new project. The characters are no longer one dimensional, the plot’s moving at just the right pace; then suddenly you sit down at the computer/typewriter/legal pad and nothing happens. You’re stuck. Nothing is more chilling to a writer than an empty page. I outline extensively to avoid them, but…
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