I’ve been looking at lists of great first lines — in novels, poems, plays, essays. Most lists online include classics. I like the lists with a theme, such as Funniest First Lines. When I’m browsing books and looking inside, the first thing I notice is whether the first line is a hook or teaser style. Most lists of great first lines tend to emphasize that approach, summing up of the story ahead with a cliffhanger.…
Story of a Young Writer One of the joys of having a writer website is hearing from aspiring writters. Recently I received an email from a librarian and teacher who has a very special student — a girl who dreams of being a writer. At an early age, she shows seriousnes about pursuing her dream of writing. At 12 years old, about the age I got serious about my dream, this girl has not only…
Living a Creative Life Can Be Addictive It seems that I’m hooked on living a creative life. I always return to writing after a catastrophe or crisis. I return to it when I’m happy and fulfilled. When I’m bored or confused. It’s like home plate. After my younger brother died, I stayed in bed for two weeks and wrote. It was terrible and unexpected. He died of cancer after a year-long battled that gave him…
Ideas for new novels seem to fall into my mind at the worst moments. In the middle of a meeting or phone call, falling asleep, watching television with my husband. He doesn’t love it when I suddenly stop paying attention to our murder mystery show and begin typing.
I’m a born rebel, so when I set goals as a NaNoWriMo rebel, I pick the ones that fit with my writing habits. These are habits born of observing my best writing periods and replicating what worked, forgetting what didn’t. For me, as a National Novel Writing Month fan, word counts don’t work. For me, daily writing works. But you may be a different kind of writer. How can you use NaNo to your advantage?…
Unlikely writing places for insiration? I’ve got tons. I write best in unlikely places, and I’m always looking for new ones. I’m also a peripatetic writer: Have Laptop Will Travel. Soemtimes changing where you write changes everything about what you write. Weird ones that work for me: the shower (I need a waterproof phone), my inside stairs (Christopher Robin complex?), the closet (see the movie THE MUSE). Yours?
I asked myself today why I’m writing a blog — and these words popped into my mind: inspiration, ideas, empowering your creativity. I write this as a writer’s journal, not a how-to write, not craft articles, and not how to query agents and get published. You can find better authorities on those things. This is where I accumulate my own personal sources for inspiration, ideas, and empower my own creativity. This is my personal writer’s…
Teaching a Child to Write — How I Began As as Writer How to teach a child to write? — by early reading. I’m living proof. I gained my desire to write from my mother, who read aloud to me and my brother every day. She also often took us to the library. When I was ten, she took me through a magical literary portal — a fantastic and immense bookstore full of used books,…
Your novel is about to be published and you just googled ‘Promoting a Novel”. Then you became dizzy and disoriented reading all the articles. Novelists have an especially difficult time weeding through advice on book promotion because most is for nonfiction. Here’s a hint: fiction writers can build on their uniqueness.
Magical realism in women’s fiction — magic and stories about relationships just seem to go together. In my reading adventures, they certainly have, from Susanna Kearsley to Sarah Addison Allen to Alice Hoffman. I find magic really woven into the fabric of our ordinary world, so magical realism — the insertion of fantastical elements into the commonplace — seems to me natural. Is time travel magical realism, fantasy, or science fiction? This is a complicated…