How a Book Is Born, Part 12
In which I decide to kill off a character. And then rescind the decision.
In which I decide to kill off a character. And then rescind the decision.
“I am an aspiring author who wants to make it big in this industry. My passion is for writing and I would love to pursue it as a career. I have written many short stories and poems. I’d appreciate any information you can give me.” I receive questions like this every now and then,…
A few weeks ago, I wrote about how life can make you question everything you believe. I quoted Rebecca, a reader who said, “With the initial wound of the TSC [tuberous sclerosis complex] diagnosis still fresh for us, I have shied away from examining any belief. Because, frankly, anything I have ever believed about this…
I wrote my first romance novel on a dare. I’d been a nonfiction book author and magazine writer for a number of years, and I was working on a mystery of the hard-boiled private eye type. A colleague suggested that the reason the relationship between my protagonist and her love interest wasn’t working was that,…
When you first begin freelancing, it’s like being parachuted, blindfolded, into a ten-acre field you’ve never seen before and your job is to grow a crop. You have no idea where you are or what the soil is like or what the seasons will bring or what grows here. You’ve got a plow, or maybe…
BIC. That’s the acronym for the number-one thing writers must learn how to do: put the Butt In the Chair. So, with just about a month to write 50,000 words, and the barest of game plans, I stuck my butt in the chair. Now, keep in mind that I also have a demanding full-time job…
So a while back, I got steamrollered into doing something I didn’t want to do, and the day I had to do it, I broke out with the most glorious case of hives you have ever seen. Huge, red, welts all over my arms and upper body and face, scratchy HIDEOUS hives that started as…