Tag: writer
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Of Mantras, Writing, and Knowing When to Tell…
Your story lives within you. Write with it rather than about it. –Martha Alderson of Plotwhisperer for Writers and Readers “Don’t talk your story out. Write it.” I heard that a lot during my participation in many writing workshops, but not so much like the almost broken mantra, “Show. Don’t tell,” regarding the development of…
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Of Bootstraps, Climbing and The Eye…
“Every piece of writing is a bootstrap affair whereby you use the crisis of the next sentence to get to the one beyond.” –Kris Saknussemm ( Write what you know–and be sorry) The Writer Magazine May 2010, author of the novels, Private Midnight and Zanesville The word bootstrap usually conjures ideas of a man-child walking…
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Of Terry Brooks, Magic, and The Writer vs. The Author…
“There are writers and there are authors. Writers seek to write, and they seek to write better and better with every book. Authors seek only to be published, and they seek advances to match their egos.” –Elizabeth George in Sometimes the Magic Works: Lessons from a Writing Life by Terry Brooks. Elizabeth George offers this…
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The Writer, Narrative, and Evolution…
Make up a story. Narrative is radical, creating us at every moment it is being created. –Toni Morrison (Accountable: Making America as Good as Its Promise by Tavis Smiley) These words gripped me the first time I read them. That was over a week ago. In the days since, I have repeated and shared them…
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Of Peeling Onions, Surrender and Writing from The Zone…
The stage of renewal in a story offers a second opportunity for rebirth. Unlike the crisis, the scenes of renewal focus on the inner life of the major character. Through the action of deciding and choosing to share the good news of her or his triumph in both word and deed, the protagonist now heads…
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Of Swords, Inner Demons and the Waters of Renewal…
The area of a novel that follows climax brings renewal. Yet writing this part of the story gets tricky. Rolling towards the finish line authors can easily lose control of the narrative. We must remain upon the horse of our story. Climax has delivered a delayed and second crisis a second form of transformation, what…