Process feels unique and individual, because it is, just as the cottonwood tree in my front yard is unique and individual, different from all other cottonwoods and even more different from other species of trees. But just as all trees have roots and bark and perform photosynthesis
Read more →After last week, I was all set to write a series of posts on ways to make up an ending at different points in the writing process – starting with the ending, making it up in mid-story, pantsing right up to the final chapter, etc. And then
Read more →In spite of all the writing advice books and blogs and web sites that tell you to start by making up the ending, I can’t think of any professional writers I know who do this in the strictest sense, at least as their regular process. (I’ve known
Read more →Every so often a writer runs across someone else’s story that has at its heart an idea they think is brilliant, but which they also think that writer has mishandled for some reason. Most of the time, the writer can take the part of the idea that
Read more →Strategy and tactics aren’t synonyms, though in casual conversation they are often used as if they were. It’s understandable; they’re both about planning your actions so you can win. The difference, as I understand it, is that strategy is about planning to win the war; tactics are
Read more →When a writer starts writing a novel, he or she is essentially standing at the bottom of a mountain, looking up. That writer is facing a zillion different moving parts that have to come together to make the climb successful, and which parts are important often change
Read more →Seat-of-the-pants writers whose work quickly sets up like concrete face some unique problems with revising.
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