Tag: writing
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Revising vs. Editing
Writers revise. Editors edit. –Author, editor and journalist, Rhonda Crowder Good novels must undergo both processes. As to who carries them out on a work of fiction is a matter of subtle and often unconscious debate. Author, editor and journalist, Rhonda Crowder whom I recently interviewed on my weekly blog talk radio show, Book Talk…
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The Filtering Consciousness of Your Characters
Fiction is not just the record of an event; it is the interpretation of the meaning of that event by someone. The biases and convictions of that filtering consciousness will express a truth the story cannot do without—and you get to manipulate that! How fun! –Dianne Orsini, Professor of English and Creative Writing Teacher My…
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Writing, Point of View and Mind on the Page
Point of View, like chess, is the simplest and most complicated pleasure yet devised for just the kind of mind that would take Creative Writing online. If Character is the casting call and Plot is what happens next, then Point of View is how you set up the camera angles and which lenses you’ll use.…
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How Often Do You Write?
This question always seemed to come up when I was attending writing conferences and workshops. Participants and fellow novice writers like myself directed it to the workshop leaders, published authors. The answers the authors offered were as varied as the authors themselves.
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Planning Your Novel: My Notebook
I have a notebook for every novel I write. I make notes on short stories I write, but novels deserve an entire notebook. My novels, as with all stories I write, begin in my head. Since earning my MFA I give much thought to my novels before I write, sometimes as much 3 years or…
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The Map is Not the Terrain-Jon Franklin and His Outline
With the last of t he edits underway on my new publication, The House, due for release in Fall 2009, I’ve found myself pondering my next story. A novel, the idea came to me sometime last week. I now realize it popped into my head after overhearing a conversation wherein a middle-aged woman in speaking…
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Ayelet Waldman, Bad Mother Anxiety and How We Come to Writing
Ayelet Waldman, wife of author Michael Chabon, mother of four and author in her own right, discusses on NPR’s Fresh Air, her trials of feeling that she’s not measuring up to what a “good mother” as defined by the late 20th early 21st century ideals.