I’ve always been somewhere in the middle of the plotter-to-pantser spectrum, but no more. At least not for now. I’ve done a deep, painful, belly-smacking dive into the pool of plotting and I’m pretty sure that’s where I’ll stay. It hurt. There were tears. Notebooks were damaged in this endeavor. But I think I’ve come […]
I’ve been doing a bunch of reading about magic – not the fantasy kind, the stage performance kind – and have concluded we can learn from magicians. As writers, we pull our readers into a world of our shared invention. We can’t make a good story without someone to read it, to react to the […]
I’ve lost my head for perfume. When I’m writing, I can’t give up reading altogether, as some stronger-willed writers do. Instead, I gravitate to topics unlike whatever I’m writing. Instead of dutifully whittling down the pile on my nightstand, I add to it. This is a trait I apparently share with many fellow writers. I […]
I’m in the middle of the madness right now, trying to connect the beginning with the end. It’s the part that makes me want to give up, throw it all into the recycling bin, and start on the next idea. And that next idea always seems so tantalizingly easy when you’re in the messy middle, […]