When I take a step back from my reactions to the churning of this never-ending election season, I realize it is providing great fodder for my writing. Here’s what I mean. During the past few…
Last week, we took a look at two ways to get unstuck. Today we’ll look at three more Third, aim high. I think about Olympic athletes. None of the ones I heard interviewed said his…
Once upon a time there was an ambitious young executive—we’ll call him Lance. He was doing all he could to climb the corporate ladder: he’d work late and volunteer for special projects. The one thing…
Much of this last year has been consumed with the details of settling my late brother’s estate. Among other tasks, I had the dubious joy of having to prepare not one but two tax returns:…
World Building from the Inside Out, Part 5 All good things come to an end, and so does this series on world building, based on Janeen Ippolito’s excellent blog post. The fifth question to pose…
World Building from the Inside Out, Part 4 Each week, I’m enjoying this exploration into my heroine’s mind, thanks to help from Janeen Ippolito’s great blog post on world building. This time the question hits…
World Building from the Inside Out, Part 3 This is the third week of exploring the world building questions from Janeen Ippolito’s blog. This week’s question about my main character is an interesting one and…
As I’m trying to finish my first (and very rough) draft of Stinging Power, I’m a little troubled about my characters. They seem to be flat, almost like cardboard, with a few flashes of life…
“It’s sure to change your life.” “You’ll get amazing results.” “Your friends will be impressed (or jealous. Or whatever).” We’ve all heard the amazing claims of marketers, trying to convince us that if we just…
Telling a riveting story, populating it with characters who speak and act, that part isn’t so hard for me. Playing with words to paint just the right image or capture exactly the perfect nuance is…
