Jul 19
“Vision is the art of seeing things invisible”— Jonathan Swift, author
In the movie, “The Magic of Belle Isle,” a single mother and her three children befriend their neighbor, a curmudgeonly wheelchair-bound writer, Monte Wildhorn.
When one of the daughters, 9-year-old Finnegan O’Neil, finds out Wildhorn (played by Morgan Freeman) is a writer, she hires him to give her lessons in finding her imagination. Read more
Seven months into the year, and I realize I’ve been through so much: the passing of my mother, our two-week remodel that turned into nine-weeks, a mini-family reunion, and both expected and unexpected travel. I’ve had many different stressors and felt a gamut of emotions: sadness, grief, fear, love, joy, fatigue (well, maybe that last one isn’t exactly an emotion, but it should be!)
As I work on my next book—imagining my story and going deeper into my characters—I realize that my seven months have been a blessing, in more ways than one. Read more
A Massachusetts publishing company has come up with a unique distribution model: It gives its books away.
Appropriately named Concord Free Press, it simply asks recipients of the books to make a donation to a person in need or a favorite charity. They’re asked to post their donation on the press’s website and later donate the book to someone else who will be part of the ongoing experiment in generosity.
So far, the donated books have inspired more than $300,000 dollars in donations. Some recent examples: Read more
As a young girl, I was a big daydreamer. While my teachers tried to fill my blank mind with science or math or proper grammar, my head was crowded with imaginary friends, chestnut horses, and rainbow unicorns. Make-believe scenes reeled through my mind on a daily basis.
In forty-some years, not much has changed.
Now, however, I use my dreaming mind as a tool to find story ideas, develop character and plot, or find the perfect word for a poem. Read more
Since today is Friday the 13th, I’ve been thinking about superstitions in general and writing in particular. The writers below share their insights about writers’ superstitions and rituals.
In this post at the Nouveau Writer, Mariana Ashley reveals The Top Five Writing Superstitions of the Greats.
Cat Woods (@catewoods) conducted an unofficial poll of 45 writers and found that 37 of them had writing quirks or superstitions. She lists some of them in this post at From the Write Angle.
At the Indextrious Reader blog, you’ll find a post by Canadian blogger Melwyk that includes a poem about superstitions and a cat.
What are your writing superstitions?
As I write my next book, I find it helpful to think back on what has excited me about other stories or characters.
In my last post, I shared a few of my favorite scenes or ideas from the movies. Below is my list of recent in-print favorites. These are either scenes, images, objects or themes that have stuck with me and made me wish I’d come up with the them.
Novels:
Karen Marie Moning’s “Fever” series. In her fantasy world, “Death-by-Sex” Faes can turn their powers off and on, capturing a person with lust. One of these Faes uses a pearl necklace in a very erotic, highly charged way. It’s one of the most unique and memorable “sex” scenes (there’s no actual sex) I’ve ever read. This is one of those scenes I wish I’d written. I’ve written more about this in my post, “How to Write a Good Sex Scene.” Read more
Jul 11
I know more than a few people who told me that they wanted to write a novel, but their sentences didn’t match up with the image in their minds. So they quit. This video is for them and for all of us who need to remember that it takes daily practice to realize our “vision.”
