Join the Forest!
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Tag Archives: writing process
David Milch on writing and God
Tweet “When you are not writing, you’re going to be sad. You are going to feel inadequate. You are going to feel untalented. You are going to feel incompetent. It’s crucially important to understand that the impulse to write is a reaching out to God.” —David Milch, creator of Deadwood and so much more, in [...]
Knocking off the rust
Tweet I feel like my blogging skills have gotten a bit rusty since the book tour. Sorry about that, friends. I promise to try harder. Sometimes the problem is that the kind of thoughts that I want to put into a blog post feel like they will need hours of writing and shaping, and then [...]
Finding Light in the Winter Bleakness of Rejection
Tweet As we approach Winter Solstice and Christmas (and just enjoyed Hannukah), your thoughts are likely drawn to the way we crave light in the darkness. If you are a writer, this means your thoughts drift to rejection. I wrote a guest blog post on how to triage rejection pain over at The Debutante Ball. [...]
WFMAD Day 30 – your time is your currency
TweetMy friend Susan Campbell Bartoletti has a new book out: They Called Themselves the K.K.K.: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group. You should buy it and read it. Five reviewing publications have given it stars (so far). Sue has written a fascinating account of her research trip to Arkansas to attend a KKK Congress. [...]
WFMAD Day 29 – Question Day Two
Tweet More questions today, with the added bonus of answers!! ::shoos chickens out of way:: Not sure if you can answer this, but how do the covers of books get chosen? It’s kind of a mystery to me, too. Publishers have departments of people who are artists. They have other departments filled with sales and [...]
WFMAD Day 27 – Friday five for your writing
Tweet Bookavore, bookseller extraordinaire at WORD in Brooklyn (and my oldest kid) has weighed in with a resolution to remedy the mud-slinging that seems to be heating up between adult “literary fiction” authors and adult “genre fiction” authors. (You haven’t heard about the feud? Details here.) If you, too, were a Model UN nerd in [...]
WFMAD Day 26 – Wild Spirits Soaring
Tweet Two quick reviews for you: Reading Rants weighs in on FORGE and WINTERGIRLS reviewed in Colorado. How did your writing go yesterday? Mine floooowed. Like creekwater after a thunderstorm. Sugar pouring from a blue china bowl. Like round hips swaying under a loose skirt to a hot salsa trumpet. Seriously. It was that good. [...]
WFMAD Day 25 – great books to read & vote for
Tweet First – congrats to my friend David Macinnis Gill on the publication of his new book, BLACK HOLE SUN!! I got to read an early copy and here is what I said about it: “Black Hole Sun grabbed me by the throat and didn’t let go until the last page. In the best tradition [...]
WFMAD Day 24 – molding characters from clay and pencil shavings
Tweet I received this request from a reader last week. “Thank u so much for the prompts!! could u mayb please write abt how u get to know ur character? & the charcters devlpment?” There are oodles of places where you can find lists of character traits that you might find handy when you are [...]
WFMAD Day 23 – right to speak, right to read, right to write
Tweet Saturday’s post on the censorship issues surrounding the Teen Lit Fest In Humble, TX led to a wonderful series of comments and ongoing discussion. Thanks again to everyone who has chimed in. One reader wrote in with a link to a censorship lesson plan for 3rd – 5th graders. Janni Lee Simner wrote about [...]