Okay, confession: When I generate a story, I don’t think about beats or scenes at all. I just write, because I’m primarily a discovery writer and I need to write in order to understand the characters, the setting, and the story. Usually, though, beats and…
Tag: writing
I was watching the music video to BTS’s song Dynamite the other day because it cheers me up, and I realized that the editing in this brilliant, super fun video is a great lesson for writing scenes. First, watch the video: Did you notice how…
Hi writers, how do you know if you’re getting better? It can be hard to judge. Writing (any kind of art) is so subjective, and we’re often the worst judges of our work anyway. (The same story can seem terrible and pretty good to me,…
One of the upsides of the pandemic has been the ability to attend conferences that I normally don’t have the money or time to travel to! Last year was the first time I was able to check out events that had long been on my…
Your friend, the painter, invites you over to view her new works. The first painting is a minimalist masterpiece. It’s a still life, of a green apple next to a rat, on a windowsill. The rat could be alive or dead. It’s hard to say.…
Happy New Year, and happy Friday, friends. I hope you are staying healthy and safe and finding what happiness you can. If you are in the United States, as I am, I hope you are able to find calm after the turbulence of the last…
In the last two weeks of my time at Clarion, we were lucky enough to be taught by Charlie Finlay and Rae Carson, who were extraordinary teachers and also supremely empathetic human beings (in my mind, those two go hand in hand.) We were able…
You got this, friend. You’ve been getting ready for thirty days. You have inspiration, you have a core idea, you have characters, you have the beginning part outlined. You’re ready. Today, you rest. Anticipate the excitement of next month. You’re going to be all right.…
Today is about finding your comps! Comps (short for “competitive titles” or “comparison titles”) are often used in query letter or pitches to tell an agent or publisher where your book would go on the shelf. Is it next to Nora Roberts or Stephen King?…
Good morning! Today we’re going to talk about finding a support squad, or at least one cheerleader. We talked earlier about finding a community. This is related, but it’s a little more personal. Think of someone, or a couple of people, in your life who…