Posts Tagged ‘writing’
Preparing my next publication – a short story collection
I’ve been super busy as 2022 comes to a close. After my first three novels, I decided to break with routine and to publish a short story collection. I have loved writing short stories – and some of the stories in this collection have won prizes or been included in anthologies and magazines. Others were…
Read MoreWriting as a way to banish concerns from your mind, according to Dos Passos
“When you write about something you often never think of it again.” —John Dos Passos I’m a big fan of John Dos Passos and his stories about how cruel the reality could be for immigrants arriving in American cities at the turn of the century – and how harsh and solitary life in those…
Read MoreSono fuori di testaaaaa … editing
To borrow from the (catchy) winning performance by the Italian (Roman, to be precise) band Måneskin at the 2021 Eurovision contest: Sono fuori di testaaa (I’m out of my mind). Mine, however, is not twenty-something existential angst about not being able to adequately express my individuality in a world that constantly pressures me to conform.…
Read MoreTalented writers make it look easy
Easy reading is damn hard writing. ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne Perhaps best known to every American school child for his novel The Scarlet Letter, American author Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) was a prolific novelist, short story writer and essayist who certainly could speak with authority on the craft of writing. His observation back in the nineteenth…
Read MoreFinding our author voice
For those who love writing and reading, the discussion about author voice and that feeling we experience when we’re fully immersed in a character voice in a new novel we’re reading is endlessly fascinating. Sadly, it also takes lots (and lots, and lots) of practice to develop. This is why I was eager to sign…
Read MoreWriters take heart – even John Steinbeck was intimidated by the blank page
“After many years, to start a story still scares me to death.” —John Steinbeck If it can happen to John Steinbeck, it can happen to anyone. Who can believe that the famed American author (1902 – 1968) of such classics as The Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice and Men, East of Eden and The Pearl…
Read MoreReviewing your own writing – except the bad bits
“I like reading my own work, and often do it. I go gently over the bits I think are bad.” —E. M. Forster I’m a big fan of E.M. Forster’s work. The British novelist ( 1879 – 1970) of masterpieces such as A Room with a View, Where Angels Fear to Tread, Passage to India…
Read MoreUseful advice for writers – and for life
“There’s no end to what can be tried, is there? So better luck next time.” —Eudora Welty Yet more insightful advice from American novelist and short story writer (1909-2001). It must be difficult for writers to read bad reviews or feel they poured so much of their heart and soul into a literary work that…
Read MoreA good writer should be able to fool his readers
“What is important is to invent a story and to make the spectators believe it.” —Tahar Ben Jelloun I like this quote from contemporary Moroccan author Tahar Ben Jelloun. This is exactly how an author creates a successful novel – by creating characters, a story and an environment that draws us in immediately and has…
Read MoreA shout out to all you 2020 Nanoers out there!
It’s rolled around once again. November – the month writers anticipate/fear/loathe – especially those who participate in the annual National Nove Writing Month challenge, or NaNo or NaNoWriMo for short. The challenge is this: Write a 50,000 word novel in one month. Do so by putting your nose to the grindstone and throwing out your…
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