Friday, May 4, 2018
How to Deal with Memory and Emotions When Writing a Memoir
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Several clients have emailed me lately, asking how to deal with the flood of emotions that comes with writing memoir. "Memories bri...
Friday, April 27, 2018
False Agreements, Misbeliefs, Core Misunderstandings--How They Drive the People and the Plot in Your Book
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For my birthday this month, I got an anniversary copy of A Wrinkle in Time. It has been a LONG time since I read that book, but I loved...
Friday, April 20, 2018
How I Got My Agent--An Interview with Debut Author Kathleen West
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Kathleen West came to several of my online classes in the early days of writing her first novel. She got structuring help and good fee...
Friday, April 13, 2018
Imagine Finishing Your Book! A Three-Part Exercise for Encouragement
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When the book journey feels way too long and the end is nowhere in sight, I use this short but encouraging exercise to help me vision m...
Wednesday, April 11, 2018
Chapterettes, Prologues, Introductions, and Other Spare Parts--What Purpose Can They Serve in a Book?
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I happen to love small pieces of books: prologues, introductions, forewords, even epilogues, and epigraphs (those quotes or small thing...
Friday, March 30, 2018
Too Much Reflection? How to Make Sure Your Story Doesn't Stall Out
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One of my blog readers sent me a wonderful question last week. It's a question that many writers struggle to answer. It had come to...
Friday, March 23, 2018
Building the "Why" of Your Story--Inner and Outer Purpose for Characters Is the Key
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Characters are it, in both fiction and memoir, if you want to publish. Of course you have to have a good plot, something happening. An...
Friday, March 16, 2018
Finding the Best "Triggering Event" for Your Book--How to Launch Your Story
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In two weeks, on Friday, March 30, I'll be teaching an all-day workshop at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis. We'll exami...
Friday, March 9, 2018
Can First Chapters Ever Be TOO Dramatic?
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Writing teachers and writing classes-- if you've worked with either, if you've shared your writing for feedback, you've prob...
Friday, March 2, 2018
Creating Pause in Your Action--When and How to Let the Reader Linger without Losing Momentum
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A blog reader sent in this fascinating question: How can "event writers" develop stationary moments in their narrative and s...
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