How do we offer honest, valuable feedback to someone else’s precious, creative work? How do we respond to another person’s writing without a) simply patting the writer on the back and praising the piece, or b) going so negative that the writer wants to rip the story up and never write again? One way is through […]

What do you do with someone who won’t behave? This person is secretive, aloof, and moody. She’s keeping me up nights and interfering with my novel in progress. She’s the character who “vants to be alone!” Her name is Robin. She’s a twin. An accomplished photographer. She has dark hair and green eyes, she’s twenty […]

In the last post, we talked about the importance of ridding a story of whatever isn’t absolutely necessary and/or doesn’t advance the story. This excess can be anything from losing a line of description to cutting out a character. Or a scene. In the case of novels, entire chapters. But once we’ve reduced a story […]

Like many people, in the first months of Covid, I transformed my social life from meals and movies, into long walking-talks with friends. But by early 2021, I pretty much ended those excursions. Life was too messed up, and I didn’t feel like chatting. However, that created new problems: My friends were confused and hurt, […]

Do you ever give up on a story? I often do. I seldom put one in the trash—that feels too final—but filing a story away feels like failure, which I hate. So I try again. I recently returned to a story that had given me fits. Something wasn’t working, but I couldn’t figure out what […]

By November 30th and the end of NaNoWriMo, some of us will have produced 50,000 words in a month with only 30 days and a major holiday thrown in for good measure. If you’re one of those delirious, exhausted writers reaching your goal, be proud! I won’t take any of that joy away from you. […]