I Am Not A Story Genius
This is not a review. It is a personal reaction to Story Genius by Lisa Cron. I am on page 245 Chapter 5 “Stories Grow in Spirals.” I started reading this book on approximately August…
Category: Writing
If I love to write, why is it so difficult?
My Writing Retreat and Cruise
Several months ago, I was thinking Bouchercon or Killer Nashville? Then I listened to a podcast called Writing Excuses, and I saw an ad for a Writing Cruise. “Yes! That’s it!” I forgot about other…
New Writer’s Block Super Fear
Listen here: Read here: Just when I was getting to the point where I thought I had it beat—I could jump in and write without a lot of delay and drama and house cleaning—I got…
How to Stop Editing a Novel—I Have No Idea
This is the last time. This is definitely it. This has to be the end. Some say when you start changing things back and forth, you’re done. I’m far beyond that. Big problem: I still…
Why I Hate the IRS
We are in mid-December 2021. Christmas is a few days away. We just finished NaNoWriMo a couple of weeks ago. What timely topic have I chosen for this month? The IRS. We’re just over a…
Editor’s Block? Is that a thing?
I have writer’s block, and I write anyway. However, I don’t demand a high word count or a certain number of hours. I’m convinced that if I reached for more ambitious goals, I’d do nothing….
Writing Humor
I was listening to a Brandon Sanderson video, and he talked for a few minutes about writing humor. (Free recordings of his lectures at BYU about writing scifi are worth the time, no matter…
Planners – Schedules – Goals – Gratitude Journals – Art Journals – Traveler’s Journals???!!!
Oh, my…I’m so confused!!!??? All these calendars and all these methods! I need stickers! And a Happy Planner! Doesn’t that sound good? And a Traveler’s Planner. Or maybe a Planner Perfect! That sounds good, too. But…
The Cat versus The King
I recentlay read two books on writing, and they couldn’t be more different: Save the Cat! Writes a Novel by Jessica Brody and On Writing by Stephen King. King is a panster; Cat! gives the…
NaNoWriMo 2020–The Good, The Bad, and The Worse
The good news is: I “won”!!! That is, I–along with many others–wrote 50,000 words of a novel during November. Last year, my first year of making this attempt, I started off with enthusiasm, but with…