Are beginnings hard? They are for me. That blank screen and its blinking cursor can be mighty intimidating. So how do you get started? When you are faced with your writing goal and your muse is out back smoking a cigarette before she comes on shift, you may despair of ever getting any words down. Here are a few tricks that I’ve used. Okay, let’s get started. It goes like this… This story is about Read more…
(Note: In the early versions of Gordath Wood, Lynn wandered around lost for a loooong time. While I wanted to get across the fear and tiredness of being lost in the woods, which is something that happened to me when I was twelve, pages and pages of it has the opposite effect on readers. It’s not frightening. It’s boring. So in keeping with Elmore Leonard’s dictum to leave out the boring parts, I cut most Read more…
I read a couple of books this weekend: A House in Amalfi, by Elizabeth Adler, and The Steel Remains, the acclaimed novel by Richard K. Morgan. Amalfi was that subgenre of romance known for food and house porn — it was set in Italy, the main character is fixing up her childhood villa, there are loving descriptions of Italian villages and Italian food, and there’s a love story. The Steel Remains was just porn. Well, it Read more…