Creativity
The Write Way: Finding Ideas for your Novel
I’m sitting at my desk in my new writing home. I wish I could tell you it’s the perfect study, soundproof, light-filled, roomy enough for all my books and research material but not the least bit barny. Actually this room is light-filled, because I’m working in the glassed-in porch of our old, old cottage in…
Read MoreKickstarting Veronica Mars, or Who’s in Charge of What You Read or Watch?
What an exciting time to be an artist, writer, film maker. Not to mention all those other professions or hobbies where imagination reigns. This afternoon a friend and I regaled each other with stories about the way our beloved publishing profession has changed. Even though publishers don’t always acknowledge this, no longer do authors listen…
Read MoreColor My World, Or At Least My Study
Every ten years or so I’m faced with a big decision. That’s about how often I move and must, out of necessity, fix up a room to work in. Which invariably means a new coat of paint. Which invariably means choosing a color for the walls. My first study was located in the corner of…
Read MoreKeeping Up with Pinterest
Nothing beats the internet when you’re recuperating. I discovered this during the past week when I was largely immobile after surgery on my knee. The iPad I’d wondered if I’d ever really need proved to be a godsend. I did mail, surfed and played Word with my family and my former assistant friend now living…
Read MoreHanging Out On the Beach For Fun and Profit
Last week’s Novelists Inc. conference was fabulous. I came home with so much information, but unfortunately no suntan to go with it. I was inside the hotel at workshops madly scribbling notes almost the entire time. When I wasn’t, I was investigating Sarasota with friends, which might well turn out to be our Florida home someday. …
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 MoreEndings and Beginnings, Careers, Novels and Quilts
Although I have never started a novel I didn’t finish, I have a host of quilts I’ve begun that are still waiting for their final stitch. I quilt because it’s fun. Not because I need warm covers on my bed or bright patches of color on my walls. The real reason I quilt is because it…
Read MoreIn The Beginning: With Nothing To Lose
On Monday I explained the reasons I was destined not to become a writer. Other talents and activities. Strange educational decisions. No scholarly examinations of the written word. And while all of those were factors, I saved the most important. Like so many of us, particularly those of us of the female persuasion, I was…
Read MoreIn The Beginning: The Creation of A Writer
Some months ago I asked my Facebook fans to suggest ideas for future blogs. What did they want to know that I could possibly tell them? I received wonderful ideas, and today I’m using one from Denise who said: “I’m interested in how you started out, all the details of how you became a writer.” …
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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