As I was riding the streetcar to work (you know the ones in the Docker’s commercial where the guy and girl see each other and then they run out to catch up to each other only to find out that they both did the same thing? Those streetcars. I ride those to work. I heart […]
Writing Advice
Starting Before the Beginning
So, regular readers know I am a bit obsessed with basketball. We had some wonderful friends in town last night and so I DVR’d the game and then set about trying to block out the outside world throughout dinner. I turned off my cell phone. I put my computer in an out of reach place. […]
Quick on the Draw
Miss Snark recently linked to a writer who expressed confusion and angst about having a query letter rejected in nine minutes flat. Anyone who has submitted a query to me probably knows that nine minutes would be a slow response time for me, and that includes both requests for partials and rejections. To quote Val […]
What is the best writing advice you have ever received?
Another Wednesday, another chance to be heard loud and clear. What is the best piece of writing advice you have ever received ever? Here’s mine: “Writers write.” So simple. So profound. So maddeningly ambiguous. Sigh. Discuss amongst yourselves.
Why pacing matters in novels
One of the very most difficult elements of writing a novel to master is pacing. Much like music, novels have a rhythm — you sort of expect things to unfold at a certain speed, things usually pick up at the end, and in the middle, if you’re ever thinking to yourself “Wow, this is getting […]
I Know Quentin Tarantino and You Sir, Are No Quentin Tarantino
1994. Such an innocent time. We thought flannel was cool and we were so jaded, man, with that whole life thing. Like Ethan Hawke in Reality Bites. Also in 1994, a little picture called “Pulp Fiction” was released and, like radiation after a nuclear explosion, we are still living with its aftereffects. Don’t get me […]