Finding time to write is not convenient. It just isn't. Whether you're working 60 hours a week or you're unemployed, life loves to get in the way. Life is a dynamic, terribly interesting force that is swirling around us all the time. It never stops. That's why we love to write about it. That's also why, if you want to be a writer who finishes anything, your life must include…
Writing under a time crunch is one of the best ways to kick procrastination in the pants. All you need is a timing device. A clock on the wall will work, but it's even better if it's a countdown timer. Lots of cell phones have timers that will beep or buzz when your time's up. Tick tick tick tick--WAIT! I'm not ready! The urge to prepare…
This is the excerpt for my novel Moonlight and Oranges, currently a quarter finalist in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards. After reading this, go to the Amazon page and review it. Thank you so much! _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ CHAPTER ONE: Orange and Vodka 1) Find a guy. 2) Strike up a witty conversation. If she could get that far. Lorona swallowed her bravado and felt sick. She was beginning…
Marketing myself as a writer is a lesson I've been gradually learning over the past few moths. Usually I'd grit my teeth about this. Many writers absolutely hate marketing. It feels uncreative, its exhausting, it feels like bragging, etc. But it teaches us how to talk to others about our writing. That's essentially what marketing is--a way to clearly communicate what we're about to the greater world. The time the…
A synopsis distills the key messages, themes, and direction of a story. Have you ever tried to condense the plot of a novel into one page? How about one or two sentences? It's hard. Really hard. The first time I tried to write a one page synopsis for Moonlight and Oranges, my novel manuscript, I almost went crazy. Cut, revise, rewrite, condense. Delete reference to non-vital scene. Include…
*SPOILER ALERT! PLOT AND KEY POINTS IN THIS REVIEW* Cross cultural, forbidden, young love, set against the painful backdrop of World War II and the Japanese internment camps. Henry's family proudly identified themselves as Chinese. Keiko's family proudly identified themselves as Americans. Keiko's English was flawless, learned from birth. Henry still had trouble with many of his words. They strike up a friendship because they're both…
A philosophical thought... A friend of mine brought up this probing question-Is writing dangerous?-yesterday while we sat in a circle of poets, lyricists, fiction and nonfiction prose writers. The thought hadn't really occurred to me to ponder until that moment. And so we did ponder it, over frozen yogurt in honor of spring's warmth. Is it dangerous to spend so much time writing? Hours and hours spent creating,…
I took this picture on the beach, a few minutes' walk away from the cabin where I and three fellow writers retreated for three nights and four days (last Thursday through Sunday) that we dedicated to writing. You do not have to be rich to go on a writing retreat. We've used cabins that belonged to friends. You do not have to be a brilliant established writer to go a…
I have friends who don't want to their writing to be cookie-cutter, fill-in-the-blank stories, thus they hesitate to read books on story structure. There are many more people who just want to write stories than there are people who want to study how to write stories. Writing can be fun and exhilarating. A spurt of creativity and words pouring onto the page sometimes trigger a euphoric "high." However it is an understanding of story structure…
Today, I'm prepared to delve into the emotional side of writing. It's my homage to the holiday. Valentine's Day, at least in our culture, has been dedicated to red paper hearts, flowers, creme-filled chocolates, expensive dinners and anything else you can put a Hallmark icon on. Then there's the flip side of Valentine's Day for all those singles out there--and though that's not me anymore, I've been there…