A novel (with the possible exception of some experimental form) chronicles the unrolling of fictional events over time. But unlike the real world, where we have to live each instant as it comes, like it or not, the time within our story is not relentless clockwork. It’s rather more like an accordion: it expands and contracts as we, the author, need it to, the better to propel the plot and keep the reader engaged. Imagine if we had to read … Read More »

One fact about writing stories is that we populate them with characters in various contexts—on a dilapidated farm, in an overcrowded city, on a sailboat out at sea. We put thought and time into shaping relevant scenes, but how often do we consider the flip-side of our writing reality: the context in which we do our work? What’s Our Writing-Context? Surely the time of day, the people we live with, and our nation’s societal/political environment affect our writing on some … Read More »

If there’s one thing to be said about passive stories, it’s that they’re boooooring. The reader is either asleep or has moved on to something else. The narrative reads like a summary of what happened—the version you’d tell someone on the phone—not one where the reader is immersed and feels like they’re experiencing the events themselves. It’s a common problem for writers and one that takes practice to address. Here is a story written in passive style: We made cupcakes … Read More »

Much like the desserts I love this time of year, the writing I enjoy the most has layers. In writing (not dessert) I specifically enjoy the text, the subtext, and the metatext. Each has its place in different mediums: print, formal digital writing, and blog posts. When writing, it is important to consider all three levels and if your piece is the place for it. The Text Text is exactly what it sounds like. It is the printed (or digital) … Read More »

Starting a piece of writing is easy, isn’t it? We just start at the beginning. That sounds so simple, until we sit down to write the first draft. For instance, we start off saying, “This idea or event would make a great story/novel.” But we still have to untangle WHY that event or story was worthy of all the words we will set down, to ourselves and to the reader. That is often the place we want to start, but … Read More »

One of my blogging colleagues recently listed, among various aids to self-editing, the suggestion to read aloud one’s manuscript. I would like to follow up that idea with a few reflections, because it seems to me that reading aloud is the key to (almost) everything writerly. What is the Written Word? What is writing, after all, but preserving in a permanent, coded form someone’s speech? The ancient Egyptians viewed it as such a mystery that they called writing “the speech … Read More »