dragonflies, spider silk green ripples on black water below the mirror–goldfish the undersides of branches shimmer. a bird calls desperately –across the pond, a woman plays a mating call off her phone. dragonfly plays copyeditor over the shadows dancing on my page …It was a good day. I also saw a bonsai tree shaped like […]
The last time I went to Trader Joe’s, I found myself standing in front of a display of cookie butter cookies. These are like recursive cookies. I wonder if they’re any good. A woman reached past my shoulder to grab a box, as you do at Trader Joe’s, because Trader Joe’s is all about catering to
You know how for some people, it’s easier to do something if it’s for someone else’s sake, not your own? I’m that way about writer stuff. If I weren’t doing it in order to accomplish the writing dream, I wouldn’t do it because: I don’t deserve it (I may have mentioned I have self-confidence issues),
So “plotting” is the current writer term for “I write a plot outline before I write a book.” “Pantsing” is the current writer term for “I write a book without writing a plot outline beforehand (in other words, by the seat of my pants.)” Plotters seem to feel that pantsers are cheating somehow. “Just admit
Here’s the thing about editorial changes: If you could have done it right the first time, you would have. This is hard for editors to understand; I know, because I’ve taken the same attitude toward my editorial clients that my ghostwriting clients have taken toward me: But it’s not that big of a change…just try
Some plots are simple. Plots based on a Joseph Campbell structure are simple. Each step follows directly from the last. “Once upon a time, there was a dude who was wrong about something. He went on an epic journey to teach him humility, which made him right—and being right made him strong.” There is one
You’re Only One Bad Assumption away from an Elegant Plot Twist Read More »
If you freelance, you know the really bad clients: the ones who don’t pay, the ones who want free work, the ones who don’t want to pay by a lesser order of magnitude of what your work is worth, the ones who want you to prioritize their work in front of other clients (without paying
Yet Another Freelancing Pitfall: The Sludge Client Read More »
I have an ugly question that’s not terribly hypothetical. Ugly because it will require some writers to a) change their minds, or b) fail. Because the question precludes the magical talent fairy: “I just want to write,” which means, “I’m so good that my marketing/promotions basically takes care of itself.” Nice gig if you can
I think I’ve found an answer (for now) for the pair of questions that’s been bothering me over the last year. I’ve been chipping away at both of them; depression worked itself loose much more easily than anxiety. The questions: What to do/take advantage of when I’m depressed? (What is the min/max approach to dealing
So I have enough confidence in my stories now that I feel like it’s “okay” to market and promote them. (For some reason, I got over the hangup of publishing them long ago.) I’m learning that with marketing the stories, it’s useful to make sure that they a) have a current, defined market, and b) the cover,
