I’ve often compared the writing process to that of the visual artist, who, with brush and pallet knife changes the brightness of shimmering water or adds lines of worry to a face. Expanding the size of a barn or removing…
Ch-ch-ch Changes
Category: For Writers
First Impressions
All of us at the Algonkian Pitch Conference in New York last month focused on how to craft the perfect elevator speech about our books. For homework we had to prepare a pitch that could be delivered in one minute…
Making One Pitch Count
About six weeks ago I received word that I had been accepted in the September 20 – 23rd Algonkian Pitch Conference in NYC. I say accepted because the conference is limited to sixty writers. So, there I’ll be, with sixty…
Take a Few Laps
When the team shows up for its first practice, bleary-eyed, a little flabby, and the look of I’d rather be someplace else on every face, the coach blows the whistle and sends everyone out to run a few laps. Out…
Can You Sustain It?
A guy walks into a bar —This set-up is about as lame an opening as It was a dark and stormy night, yet all of us are willing to swallow the opener and go with it until we get the…
You Need A Laughing Place
Years before it became politically incorrect to read Joel Chandler Harris’s Uncle Remus, my mother would gather the three of us kids together and regale us with the timeless misadventures of Brer Rabbit, and all of his friends and enemies.…
Going the Distance
As I leapfrog onto and over the myriad of author and agent websites and blogs I find that I rarely land on one that I don’t pick up a tidbit of info that helps me advance my campaign to gain…
Using Criticism as a Tool
What does criticism inspire you to do? Criticism, whether a scholarly critique penned by a renowned person of letters, or a bellow from the dining room that the sauce needs more oregano, is someone’s response to something that you did.…
Why A Fiat?
Why does Dave McGuire, the main character in Dead End File, drive a Fiat Spider? He drives one because I do. Maybe I should say, because I did and do. My thinking is that if Dave is going to be real to…
When Is It Finished?
Next to “Where do all your stories come from,” the most frequently asked question of a professional writer is “When do you know your story is finished?” Bruce Dobler, one of my creative writing professors who sadly died two years…