Plot is what happens—first this, then that, then the other thing. What if we asked a different question at the beginning of our plot outlines? Try saying, “I was there and this happened to me.” Now we are focused on cause and effect rather than only the events. We’ve established that someone will be adapting …
Plotting with a Different Question by Lani Longshore Read More »
My husband recently acquired permission to submit articles to Wikipedia. To be able to do this, you have to work your way through Wikipedia’s vetting process (click here to get started), which includes learning to make edits to existing articles. One straightforward and useful way to make edits is to add footnotes to articles where …
Just when I thought my biggest writing issue was making time to sit at the keyboard, I discovered a whole new problem. My latest novel is spiraling out of control so I decided to rework the outline. Mind you, this is the first novel I’ve tried to outline. I allowed the others to wander because …
I attended a workshop dedicated to crafting sentences. We began with a discussion of sentence forms—simple, complex, compound, and complex-compound. Most instructors I’ve heard in the last ten years have focused on the simple sentence as the best solution to all writing problems. This class was led by a woman who rejected the idea of …
The Return of the Participial Phrase by Lani Longshore Read More »
One of my critique groups has an annual planning session in January—we call it our private workshop. What it accomplishes is worth every penny we spend on food and every minute we take away from other demands on our schedules. We dedicate an entire day to hashing through some issue in our writing. This year, …
Giving books at Christmas is an Icelandic tradition that dates back to World War II. Import duties on paper were relatively low, so books were an economical (and available) option. The tradition took off, and now every November the Iceland Publishers Association mails a free catalog of new publications to every home in the country. …
Make Books a Holiday Tradition by Lani Longshore Read More »
There are times when we are confronted with our own limitations. Several weeks after I sprained my ankle, I went to the doctor because I’d noticed the skin there was noticeably more pink than around my healthy ankle. The problem was, I didn’t know if the skin had always been rosier, or if I was …
While preparing for a family visit, I was struck by the many ways editing is like cleaning. While I do some editing as I write, there are always dust bunnies hiding between the paragraphs. Wiping down the sentences is fine, but there are times when removing all the knickknacks and bringing out the furniture polish …
Pull up a chair and write? Why did I need to hop in my car with my laptop and drive to The Corner Bakery to write? I’m one of the lucky writers with an entire room devoted to my writing process. Could setting up shop at a restaurant with other writers scattered around the tables …
How Advice from a Friend Tweaked My Writing Process by Linda Todd Read More »
My daughter posted a meme on Facebook called California English: yeah, no means no; no, yeah means yes; yeah, no, for sure means definitely. That is why I love eavesdropping on random conversations to help with character development. Dialogue can tell the reader so much about the character, sometimes without them being aware of it. …
Dialogue and Character Development by Lani Longshore Read More »
