The Writing Process
Play It Again, Sam–When Word Processors Go Wrong
My friend Diane Chamberlain made a terrifying discovery this week. Somehow, through no fault of her own, one of her minor characters, Sam, began showing up in the strangest places in her novel. At the beginning of sentences instead of the word “but.” In scenes with other characters, when he suddenly played all the roles. …
Read MoreDon’t Push The River; It Flows By Itself: Creativity and Deadlines
Sometimes, there are no words. It’s that simple. There are entire days, sometimes stretching to weeks, when putting together an intelligent sentence is a remarkable challenge. Most often these days occur when I’m writing a synopsis. A synopsis is a story summary. Picture me sitting down over coffee one morning to give you a blow by…
Read MoreCouldn’t I Have Said That Better? Editing, Galleys and Errors
There are people out there (and you know who you are) who live to catch errors on the printed page. As obsessed as I am with making sure there are none, I still hear from this sacred sisterhood from time to time. “Don’t I know that people “pore” over the printed page, not pour?” Well, yes,…
Read MoreBrainstorming in Sunny Climes–Five Authors and a Blizzard of Ideas
As I’ve told you before, I’m a confirmed Brainstormer, or BSer, as my group fondly calls itself. I just finished a week in Sarasota, Florida with my brainstorming friends working on ideas for our upcoming novels. Please remember, the plans for this event were laid months ago. We didn’t check weather maps or consult a…
Read MoreHow Did We Live Without Them?
I love words. No surprise there, right? I spend hours each day glueing them together, selecting the perfect choices, moving and deleting and replacing. New words fascinate me. I love being the first kid on the block to use one, but much more often a word sneaks up and surprises me. In fact a word can be…
Read MoreA Rose By Any Other Name–Robin, Rachel, Ruth, Rita?
What’s in a name? If you’ve ever named a child, or even a pet, you know the answer. We don’t take this lightly, do we? “Oh, we’ll call the new puppy Rover, that’s easy. We’ll call the new baby Jane or Mary because they’re easy to pronounce and spell.” Rover, Jane, Mary? All perfectly good…
Read MoreIn The Beginning–So Where on Earth Did that Novel Come From?
Ask any novelist what readers most often want to know about his/her work. I can almost guarantee he or she will tell you, “Where do you get your ideas?” Some authors–tired of this perfectly legitimate question–will answer “The idea store.” “And don’t we all wish it were that easy?” they ask. I’m here to pass on…
Read MoreThe Mystery of Writing–What can be taught and what can’t
This past week I had the good fortune to teach Writing the Mystery Novel here at Chautauqua Institution in Western New York. I really wasn’t sure how many students would sign up. The offerings here are many, and this was fairly specialized. But the perfect number of students arrived, and we commandeered a room that…
Read MoreConferences, Publishing, and MUCH shorter novels
So picture this. Two thousand conference goers, editor and agent get togethers, two house guests, parties, booksignings, workshops, business meetings, a particularly noisy hotel and writers I hadn’t seen in years. Add this up and you get . . . exhaustion! I just returned from the Romance Writers of America conference in Washington DC, and…
Read MoreBook Promotion, Accidents, Writing Careers and Internet Radio
Freud may not believe in accidents, but I do. Want to hear about the accident that changed my life? I mean HEAR. Not read. You can do it right now by going here, to Accidental Radio on the website of author Wendy Wax. Once you click on my information, a cute little podcast graphic will…
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