Tag: women writers
Writing From The Heart, Not For The Market
When I was in my early twenties, I started writing vignettes and short stories as a creative conduit for emotion, situations and affairs of the heart that I could not understand as I lived them in the moment. Writing them down helped me reflect on what I saw and allowed me to distance myself from […]
Learning as I Go
I can’t begin any discussion of what I’ve learned about writing while writing without a disclaimer: I’ve learned things that work for me. Aside from a few college-level writing courses, the books I’ve read on writing, and what I’ve picked up from other authors at workshops and conventions, I am completely self-taught. And I’m constantly […]
Write the Story You Know
Write what you know. That’s what everyone says. But if you aren’t confident you know anything, writing what you know can seem inadequate. I spent far too many years trying to write about things I thought I should know. My real success as a writer didn’t begin until I finally started writing about the heart-wrenching, […]
Dialogue and Subtext: The Spoken and the Unspoken
Subtext is a key element in transforming blah serviceable dialogue into dazzling dialogue. Why? Because great, genuine sounding dialogue happens at two levels: what is spoken and what is unspoken. What is said and what is meant. Children, drunks, iconoclasts, and people with impaired social skills tend to say exactly what they mean all the […]
The Goodbye Year: A Conversation with Kaira Rouda
It’s only fitting that Kaira Rouda’s latest novel, The Goodbye Year, (http://www.kairarouda.com/) takes place on the edge of the Pacific Ocean. All of the characters in the novel stand on an edge—the divide between who they were and what they can become as they face graduation, divorce, and even the prospects of staying together. As […]
This Much I Know Is True (About Writing Fiction. And Me.)
I didn’t always know these things. I discovered them like fossils. Some are elements of craft: I now know that every protagonist needs a secret that will eventually be discovered or confessed. That secret should evoke deep feelings in her, such as shame, guilt, and the like. Some are about publishing: I now know what […]
Learning The Ropes As A Hybrid Author
Smart people disagree on whether traditional publishing or self-publishing is the way to go, or whether it’s getting easier or harder for new writers to break into the business, but most people will agree on one thing: the game is changing. In the last few years, I hear more and more about authors who leave […]
Finding Where You Fit In The Writing World
I’m still waiting for A Great Voice to come from Above and say “You are official now. You can call yourself a writer.” In spite of 36 years worth of writing and publishing I cringe when somebody introduces me as a writer. But being someone who writes is no different than being someone who canoes. […]
Judge a Book By Its Cover
Never judge a book by a cover. It’s great advice – except when it’s applied to a book. We all judge books by their covers, and people who write, design and market books know this. We make decisions in an instant based on the look of a book; whether or not we’ll even pick the […]
Blindness, Art Theft And Creation Of A Story
A few months ago, I received a letter from an old acquaintance. While reading about the masterpieces stolen from the Gardner Museum, she recalled another art theft near Boston, in the 1970s and googled my ex husband. Finding nothing, she googled me and discovered the novel I’d written about our relationship. I called him Angus, […]
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