On a road trip to Maine there were four of us, plus two google-navigating cell phones, one road atlas and a GPS device to “bind them all.” Needless to say, whoever was driving was besieged by three or four opinions about where to turn and which was the best route. (After the GPS led us on a few merry dead-ends, we could only partially count on her expertise.) The driver was in the unenviable position of glancing at the GPS … Read More »

In honor of National Reading Month (March), and many other fine celebratory days this month, let’s take a look at a book for the very youngest reader/listener. After all, it is never too early to start reading to your child. But how does a writer write a wordless, or almost wordless, book? And how is it done if the writer is not also an illustrator? Obviously, one cannot simply list the few words that appear on the pages and submit … Read More »

Welcome back to our discussion about the writer’s voice!  If you’ve worked through the exercises in Oh, Those Voice (Part 1),  you should have some idea about the nature of your raw voice. That is your starting point. As writers we need to be able to shape our voice each time we write. And for each thing we write it may be a differently shaped voice. Still yours, but molded to fit what you are writing. And, hopefully, a voice … Read More »

Happy New Year! And what a better way to start than tackling one of the knottiest issues in writing: voice. We were born with a voice. So why is it many manuscripts get rejected because an agent/editor says there’s no voice? Then we authors go off frantically searching for our voice as though we’d misplaced it somewhere. The truth of the matter is that you have a voice. It’s just that, often, an author’s voice doesn’t work for a number … Read More »

Like many writers I have a drawer full of beautiful journals — some too beautiful to abuse with my plain Anglo-Saxon words. If you have a writer on your gift-giving list here are a few gift ideas other than journals and pens. 1. Books. (Duh!) Writers are coveters of books. If you’re not sure which book to get, let me suggest a couple of titles. Tony Hoagland’s The Art of the Voice, Jane Yolen’s Take Joy, Stephen King’s On Writing, … Read More »

Let’s take a little time and talk about rhyme. So, if I were to take that first line and divide it into two end-stopped lines of poetry: Let’s take a little time/and talk about rhyme I’d have the classic end-stopped exact rhyme we were introduced to as children. Rhyme can be that simple—and that ho-hum. However, if used in a more complex way rhyme can heighten the musicality of your writing. There is a great deal one can say about … Read More »