I can turn back time. I have the power to change the past. It’s a heady feeling, to not only have lives under my control, but to make them go back and do what I want.  When I started my first draft … Continue reading →

“Easy reading is damn hard writing.” — Nathaniel Hawthorne (author of The Scarlet Letter, 1850)    

I like baking. Better than cooking–the results are so much yummier. My kids like baking–so much so that they’ve branched out into “experiment baking”. They take ingredients used for, say, chocolate chip cookies and, without following a recipe, without measuring, … Continue reading →

Here I offer you The Beginner’s Guide to Effective, Unproductive Writing Procrastination, or, How to Waste Your Writing Time. Conditions necessary to be successful: You luck out with a significant chunk of time to write. You’re pleased because it rarely happens … Continue reading →

Trees. Damn trees. I’m still on the action sequence (see post “Action Sequences: the Movie Version”). I should have long ago cracked that nut and moved on. But I’m not because of the damn trees. David and Lyra are being … Continue reading →

In dangerous insurgent territory, David and Lyra discover they are being followed and soon a car chase ensues. They don’t yet know why they’re being pursued, but David is experienced enough to know the pursuers are up to no good … Continue reading →

Self-doubt afflicts everyone at some point; it’s not the sole domain of writers. Yet I think that for those of us who are not yet published, self-doubt can be acute. Writing can be an isolating activity–you don’t often work with … Continue reading →

I have a job for you. Go to your couch. If you’re not near your couch, try this when you’re home. Alternately, you can go to your bed. Or the floor, if you like. There’s one of those everywhere so … Continue reading →

I tell my students–and it’s advice echoed by professional writers, fiction and non-fiction alike–to always keep a small notebook on hand. I tell them to look around, to observe the  details around them, to jot down the strange, the funny, the … Continue reading →

Warning: No “Lessons Learned” in this post. On face value, it seems obvious to define a minor character–one who isn’t a major character, who isn’t central to the development of the story. But there’s a spectrum of minor characters-some who … Continue reading →