You’ll never hear us say writing is easy around the My Book Therapy campus. No siree, Bob. Writing is hard. It’s work. Here’s what gets me. I have a great idea, I see it all—beginning, middle and end, then I sit down to write and my inspiration vanishes. The story feels too slow. Too muddy. Too awkward. The things I thought the protagonist wanted now don’t work. Or seem trite. I can’t find the layers. Everyone sounds like Gumby and Pokey. After sixteen books, the pit of despair in the middle of my stomach isn’t as deep, isn’t as fierce. But still, about 30K into a book with a deadline looming, I’m wondering how this book is going to pull together. In the end, they always do. Yay, God. I […]
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Conversations: How to keep your story flow after a long holiday!
“I feel like it’s been forever since we’ve last talked.” Sally said as she came into the coffee shop. “And with Memorial Day today, and the fact I haven’t written in about four years, I feel like I’ve lost all momentum on my chapters.” Outside, Anne was planting geraniums in the coffee shop planters. The sun glinted off the lake, and the smell of lilacs hung in the air. I had a tan from the weekend Memorial Day and couldn’t wait to get home to our family barbeque. “Oh, I hear that.” I said. “I haven’t written for five days and it can be frustrating when you walk away from your novel with your ideas still trapped in your brain. One of my biggest frustrations in writing a novel is […]
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Showers of Creativity Part Four: Go Forth and Create
We’re at the end of the month and you’ve come through three weeks of discovery and planning to give the world the best of YOU that you can offer. That’s quite an accomplishment. I have no doubt the world will be a better place for it. When this series ends and I’m not showing up in your email inbox every weekend, the tendency will be to “get back to normal”. No worries. The thought crosses nearly everyone’s mind. But what will you choose to do when that thought comes? After all, you’ve worked hard over these last few weeks in attempts to wax creative. You deserve a rest, right? Ummm, no. Here’s the thing. If the train isn’t moving, wouldn’t that be a dandy time to jump off and go […]
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Using Dialog and Prose to Create the Setting
Last night I sat in a small circle of writers disguising themselves as readers. As we discussed the book of the month, one of the reader-writers said, “The dialog and language really drew me in. It was part of the setting, really.” That hooked me right there. Not to read the book because, well, I wrote the book, but as a blog topic! Using Dialog and Prose to Create the Setting. I never thought of it before but word choice, dialog, the arrangement of words can really help put the reader in the mind set of the PLACE the story is being told. The era. The region. The social class. Education. Even values and belief systems. We’ve all heard word choice is key to the author’s voice. We’ve also learned […]
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