The Writing Process
Plotting a Novel: And Your Book Started Where?
Plotting a novel? I’m about to reveal a novelist’s biggest secret. Come closer. . . promise you won’t tell? Everybody does it differently. That’s right. As much fun as it would be to tell you my way is the only way, I’d be taking my life in my hands at my next writer’s conference. Truth…
Read MoreAspiring Authors Wanted
Chautauqua Institution, where I spend my summers, is famous for porches nestled together, usually just feet from the road. For the most part it’s also a pedestrian community, so put all that together and you have. . . A distinct lack of privacy. It’s not unusual for me to run for the phone in my…
Read MoreLily Dale: Mediums and Messages at Spiritualism’s Center
Readers who want to be writers sometimes tell me that they’re at a disadvantage because they’ve never lived anywhere interesting enough to set a book. Where Can I Set My Novel? Aren’t we glad Agatha Christie, who set all her Miss Marple books in St. Mary Mead, a provincial village in England, never thought that…
Read MoreCreating a Character from Real Life
Yesterday was my sweet mother’s birthday. Had she lived, she would have turned 98. She wouldn’t have been happy about it. My mom was a worrier. Know anybody like that? Or do you know somebody who’s just the opposite, who only worries if he or she is smack dab in danger? Most of us are…
Read MoreNovels and Children: Some Are Easier to Raise Than Others
Novels and children. Sometimes planned, sometimes not. Sometimes almost trouble-free, and sometimes . . . I bet you’ve already figured out some other similarities between novels and children, haven’t you? Here’s another. A mother protects her children the way a novelist protects her books . She might know they have faults, but even on a…
Read MoreThe Editing Process: Teenagers and Talking Raccoons
Bet you thought I was serious when I said I was finished with The Swallow’s Nest. First my husband blogged to complain about the horrors of living with an author at the end of her book. Then I told you I’d sent it in and had “gone fishing,” which wasn’t quite true. I’d gone on a cruise,…
Read MoreDo Readers Want Facts Or a Fabulous Story?
Before I explain today’s title, I’ll remind you that the subject of research has been on my mind in a big way this month, and in last week’s blog I addressed how and when I do it. I’ve been immersed in the final rounds of research for The Swallow’s Nest, and thinking a lot about…
Read MoreResearching a Novel: Accurate But Vague
I’ve spent the past week diligently researching a novel. Not just any novel, but The Swallow’s Nest, my work in progress which is now entering the home stretch. It may seem odd to you that in the home stretch of my novel, I’m still doing research. You might ask yourself why, um. . . is she finally getting around to it now?…
Read MoreWriting Anxiety and Ways to Subdue It
After writing for much of Thursday I finished another chapter of The Swallow’s Nest, next summer’s new release. I followed this with an attack of writing anxiety. I’m not sure if this book’s going slower than my usual. I do know that it’s a tough one to write, and it’s competing with so many other…
Read MoreBrainstorming 2016: Ideas Are Never the Problem
Certain recurring themes thread their way through the lives of all writers, fiction and non-fiction alike. One of them we can count on? At some point we will all be approached by someone or someones who tell us they have an idea for a book and they’ll share it if we promise to write the book for…
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