I used to never finish a draft of anything. Or a sewing project. Or a crochet project. Or a poem. I was a queen UNfinisher. At the Game Devs meet up the other night, during a discussion on unfinished projects, someone, I think it was Matt, said, “No one finishes Read more…
Some of my most successful stories have been the easiest to write. “Butterflies on Barbed Wire” was practically a single draft and sold to like the third market I sent it to. Why? Well, it plays to my strengths – I wrote about characters I could relate to in situations Read more…
I’m working on this story and one of the first readers said that I needed to “Show the main character making his decision.” So I re-wrote it and I added all this internal dialog for the character waffling over his decision and… I realized I don’t know how to show Read more…
At Clarion, one of our instructors (I think it was a guest lecture from Kim Stanley Robinson) said, “The change to your writing won’t come right away. For most it’s two years after Clarion that what you learn here will really change your writing.” The message was, “Don’t expect to Read more…
When I was young, my mother told me a lie. It was a big lie and she told it with remarkable consistency. She told me she was Jewish. “And since all that matters for Jews is what your mother is, that means you are Jewish, too,” she’d say. There was Read more…
So, there I was, in, what? Fourth grade? We were learning about instincts. Birds that could fly halfway around the globe to find exactly the same nesting site. Salmon swimming upstream without their parents to guide them to the pool where they were born! I raised my hand. “Why don’t we Read more…
Or: Why Can’t I Just Marathon Everything? About my senior year of college I realized something about the way I handled projects, school work, sewing, well… everything. I procrastinated until the night before [thing] was due and then pushed through an all-nighter to a shocking, triumphant conclusion. As time went Read more…