For the purposes of this post, stories are vases. Not all vases are the same, though. One problem with soliciting advice for improving your story can be that the person you talk to wants a different vase altogether. “I wrote a heartwarming human-interest story!” “It needs more action.” “Here’s Read more…
So, this really happened. I was helping my friend Mike move, and I had stacked the dresser drawers in opposite order so I could put them back in easily. The three drawers were all different sizes. I took the bottom drawer, which was largest, out last, so it was on Read more…
A catless writer is almost inconceivable. It’s a perverse taste, really, since it would be easier to write with a herd of buffalo in the room than even one cat; they make nests in the notes and bite the end of the pen and walk on the typewriter keys. ~Barbara Read more…
What will the future hold? Let us journey to the year 2055 via my mind! “Sitting at a computer” is as quaint an idea as listening to serials around a credenza-sized radio. Or staring at a dedicated “television” screen. Everything is mobile and tactile and implanted. Consequently, people are much Read more…
New Year’s Resolutions: 1. Stop wasting time on blogging. 1. Write. 1. Write a lot. 1. Write 1,000 words a day. 1. Write 50,000 words every month. 1. Write 1,000 words every single day, weekends and holidays, too. 1. Just finish what you write. 1. Finish all those short stories Read more…
We writers get worked up about cover letters. I know I do. I stare at the screen every time, trying to decide what to say. So, to help me, and you, or perhaps simply to dispel the myth that cover letters matter at all, here are the cover letters that Read more…
A first draft of a story looks like this: The final draft of a story looks like this: They are both words on pages, nothing more. Why can’t we just write the final draft the first time? We forget that we’re making ART. You don’t just start from the beginning and Read more…