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Posts from the ‘Craft’ Category

Feb 15

Dream your words onto the page

Writer John Gardner once described novels as “vivid, continuous dreams.”

I like it when my dreams inspire my writing. But, lately, I’ve been overly busy with our business and having more work-related dreams. This week we had website issues that I struggled with and, last night, my hubby and I were discussing the website before going to sleep.

I ended up dreaming about websites all night. I tossed and turned, my subconscious mind trying to solve the problem, and woke up with some great insights this morning–albeit a bit tired.

Other nights, I usually read before going to bed–the favorite part of my day–so often my dreams will stem from what I’ve just read. When I read The Art of Racing in the Rain: A Novelby Garth Stein I kept dreaming that we bought a new puppy that wrecked our living room furniture. When I read White Oleanderby Janet Fitch one night I dreamed I was an orphan living in the wilderness. Read more

Feb 14

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Six tips for writing a love letter

No matter how much we strive to polish our writing skills, it’s not always easy to find the words we want to say, especially when the stakes are high. Finding the words though is worth it and a gift that money can’t buy.

On this Valentine’s Day, as you search for just the right words to write to your beloved, find inspiration in these words Napoleon Bonaparte wrote to his wife Josephine De Beauharnais.

“Dearest Josephine, I wake filled with thoughts of you. Your portrait and the intoxicating evening which we spent yesterday have left my senses in turmoil. Sweet incomparable Josephine, what a strange effect you have on my heart! Are you angry?  Do I see you looking sad? Are you worried? … My soul aches with sorrow, and there can be no rest for your lover; but is there still more in store for me when, yielding to the profound feelings which overwhelm me, I draw from your lips, from your heart a love which consumes me with fire? Ah! it was last night that I fully realized how false an image of you your portrait gives! You are leaving at noon; I shall see you in three hours.  Until then, mio dolce amor, a thousand kisses; but give me none in return, for they set my blood on fire. –Bonaparte”

These tips might help you write your own love letter:

1. Write a draft. Think of your first words as a draft that you will adjust. This takes some of the pressure off and frees you to fling those words down on the page. Read more

Feb 8

2 Comments

Try this revision tip: Cut up your manuscript

After you’ve spent months and even years working on a manuscript, it can be hard to see the trees for the forest or the forest for the trees, to use a woodsy, Pacific Northwest kind of saying.

That’s when I go back to a practice I learned from one of my MFA writing advisors. In one of our group meetings, we all cut up pages of our manuscript into strips and rearranged the paragraphs and sentences to see if our stories flowed better.

Genius artist Michelangelo once said about his work: “I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.”

I’m currently working on another round of memoir revisions. No matter how long it’s been since I’ve worked on it, I always feel too close to it to be as objective as I’d like. Something about physically cutting strips of sentences and paragraphs and moving them around gives me a new perspective. It also feels different from just reading the printed pages and making notes, although that’s part of revision strategy. Read my last blog post, Critique your manuscript with this checklist, to learn more.

Here’s one way to go about cutting up your manuscript:

1. Save your manuscript as a separate document. This is so that you can revert back or can refer back to the original to compare how it all flows. Read more

Feb 1

6 Comments

How to write the dreaded synopsis

Writing a one-page synopsis for my fantasy novel has been more challenging than writing the synopsis for my memoir. Some of the questions I’ve had include how much of my fantasy world do I describe? How much of the plot should I cover? Should I include any of my protagonist’s subplots?

Maybe you’re facing this challenge too. I found helpful posts from other fantasy authors to share:

How to Write a Fantasy Trilogy Synopsis by Glenda Larke helped me realize that my fantastical bits weren’t going to make much sense in a quick summary, so I decided to focus more on characters and less on world-building. Read more

Jan 30

4 Comments

The number one way to create a likable character

The late screenwriter and writing mentor Blake Synder taught that in order to have your reader or audience fall in love with your main character, you had to have a “save the cat” scene. This is a scene where your protagonist performs a simple act of compassion toward another.

In Snyder’s words, “It’s the scene where we meet the hero and the hero does something–like saving a cat–that defines who he is and makes us, the audience, like him.” (From Save the Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting That You’ll Ever Need).

Watch the short clip below of Clint Eastwood’s “Hang ‘Em High,” hosted by author Steve White, that shows the “save the cat” scene in action:

To read what Snyder has to say about titles, see my previous post, “A killer title must have irony and tell a tale.”

Jan 29

4 Comments

Make a journaling habit that sticks with one sentence a day

The first month of 2013 is almost finished, and if you’ve committed to start a journal this year but struggled to maintain it, you may find it easier to take a minimalist approach.

I read about one-sentence journaling recently in an interview on the blog Creative Liberty written by Liz Massey. Massey interviewed life and creativity coach Quinn McDonald, who holds workshops about writing one-sentence journals.

This is how McDonald came to write one-sentence journals:

“Because I was a newspaper editor, I began to write headlines for my days–just the most important thing was covered. While checking in on one of my favorite websites (DIY Planner), a woman mentioned that she would journal more if she could write just one sentence a day. That did it–I developed “One Sentence Journaling,” as a class.” Read more

Jan 28

3 Comments

A killer title must have irony and tell a tale

In his well-known book on screenwriting, Save The Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need, Blake Snyder explained that the title of your screenplay (or novel) is an important component of your logline (for a novel, think of the logline as your one sentence pitch).

A killer title, he wrote, must have irony and tell the tale of the story. One of his favorite movie titles was, “Legally Blonde,” because it encompassed the essence of the story and was unexpectedly humorous.  On the other hand, he felt the movie title, “For Love or Money,” was a horrible title because it was too vague. (There’s even been four different movies with that title, none of them memorable).

Snyder’s advice on titles can apply to any writing project–even poetry or short stories. He made me realize that the working title for my current project had to go because it met none of his criteria for a good title–it didn’t show what the novel was about, it wasn’t unusual or ironic, and it didn’t hook the reader. In fact, the old title probably got in the way of my writing. Yikes! I may change the title again in the future but at least my new working title is pointing me in the right direction–the direction my story wants to go in. Read more

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