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Solving a First-World Blogging Problem
Anthropologist Margaret Mead (1901-1978) talking to journalists. The person in background appears to be chemist Linus Pauling (1901-1994). For some time now, WU has been struggling with a challenge....
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Flying Fingers or Tapping Toes: Art is Art is Art
Photo via Wikimedia Commons, User:Jean-no [FAL]First there were difficulties securing a vehicle, then foot tendinitis, then unprotected chest met deck edge, leading to multiple rib fractures. (At which...
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4 Horseman of the Relationship Apocalypse—Want Them for Members of Your...
Of the long-term, previously stable writing communities in which I’m involved, guess how many have suffered through some sort of meltdown in the past few months. (By “meltdown” I mean disagreements...
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Linguistic Quirks: What Wordbirthing & Name-Nicking Can Do for Fiction
I awoke from a nightmare last weekend and did the sensible thing. I got up and showered off the flop sweat, crawled back in with the ToolMaster, and poked him in the shoulder — firmly, since he was the...
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The Cadaver Wore Text (aka the Case for Plot Dissection)
I managed to enter med school without attending a funeral or viewing a single dead person. So at age twenty, as I boarded the elevator which would take me to my first practical session in Human...
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This Mystical Thing Called Branding
It began with a contentment-producing ritual. Weather permitting, most Saturday mornings, I stroll a safe and pleasant three miles to the mall where I visit the library, the bookstore, and the grocer....
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Never Go Naked to Scrabble: Authorial Words Containing “BIC”
For the past month I’ve been adrift, Unboxeders, and I don’t care for the feeling. I’ve been a morning mist without a lake to blanket, a hummingbird without a fragrant flower from which to sip.*...
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4 Science-Based Resources to Build a Drama-Free Writing Routine
Few things in life give me more pleasure than a gorgeously written blog post validating my choice to write, particularly if I’m fresh from a difficult critique or my characters have gone silent. That’s...
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Be Bigger Than Chickens: an Interview with Joshilyn Jackson
I fell in love with William Ashe at gunpoint, in a Circle K. It was on a Friday afternoon at the tail end of a Georgia summer so ungodly hot the air felt like it had all been boiled red. We were both...
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What’s a Pantster to Do When They’re Stuck? Go Tell It TO the Mountain.
Valley of the Five Lakes, Jasper, Alberta In the medical world, when a patient becomes sick, it’s important to establish a chain of causation as soon as possible. Understanding the “why” of an illness...
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To the Disconsolate Writer Who Hates Her Pace
Moai Rano, Easter Island from Wikimedia Commons From an anonymous email: Dear Jan: I’ve seen you describe yourself as a slow writer. I am one also, and it makes me discouraged to the point I’ve...
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Songs on Surviving the Midlist: from Opera Singer, Circus Performer &...
When I learned the theme for this month was “a peek behind the publishing curtain”, it was an easy decision to invite today’s guest for an interview. For as long as I’ve known her, Gretchen McNeil has...
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There Are No Mwuahaha Villains in the Artistic Life
You know that if two artists are married, only one is going to be successful. And in your family, it’s going to be [your husband]. So why don’t you just understand that and look after the house and...
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Cultivate the Gap and Watch Your Readers’ Eyebrows Bounce
When my youngest was a wee lad, there was a period when I knew I was failing him as a parent. Day after day, from the moment I woke him up to take him to the sitter’s until I tucked him into bed (for...
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All Hail Dilemmas: Why Your Characters Need to Make Tough Choices
Last month I began a series on story lessons learned or refined during my multi-day Story seminar with Robert McKee. (It was fantastic. If you get a chance to attend, I highly recommend it.) The first...
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Because Size Matters: McKee’s Four Tips on Writing a Big Story
You know how certain types of feedback get under your skin like road rash, so that months or years later the grit is still working its way to the surface? Well, eons ago, as she contemplated a novel...
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C-c-considering Cadence: Understanding One Quality of Voice
The Oxford Dictionary defines cadence as “a modulation or inflection of the voice, a rhythmical effect in written text, a fall in pitch of the voice at the end of a phrase or sentence” or simply as...
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Wanted: Grim Reaper As Writing Coach
The Grim Reaper by Trish Steel [CC-BY-SA-2.0], via Wikimedia CommonsLast month, through pure serendipity, I stumbled across an intellectual exercise which I’d like to recommend to all my fellow...
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Deconstructing Micro-Tension
If you had to guess, what portion of the hundred-thousand-mile journey to basic fiction-writing competence would belong to the pursuit and mastery of micro-tension? Ten percent? Thirty? I personally...
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Lessons from the UnCon: I Surrender. I’m Finally Ready to Be Naked
Method Writing (and Eating) with Brunonia Barry at the Witch’s Brew Cafe–photography credit Mike Swift If you attended the inaugural UnCon in Salem, this post is an attempt to recreate a bit of its...
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