Writing | Writing
May.20.2013
As I mentioned last week, I’m doing a bit of final polishing before I send my novel off to my agent. I’ve posted earlier about the difficulties writers face in the last stages of long projects—the feeling that you’ve been running a four-year-long marathon and barely have enough energy to cross the...
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May.20.2013
I’ve always been restless, but the year I turned twelve I was desperate to escape my life and discover a bigger, better world. Other people, the elite, the rich, people who worked in big offices, got to fly around the world on airplanes, why couldn’t...
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May.19.2013
There are two things you’ll hear a lot when people start giving out advice on writing.
- Write what you know
- POV matters
I’m not much for cut-and-dried rules; I write what I write, and I write ‘how’ I write, but sometimes I can go back after the fact and pick out some things...
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May.19.2013
In a recent post on The Red Room, Orna B. Raz makes a very interesting case for the fiction writer’s ability to rewrite true life events, giving the stories a happier outcome on paper, than they might have had in reality. She set me thinking about the power of fiction writing...
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May.19.2013
A flaky torn bit of page crumbled in my hand as I opened the bookshelf. The remnant had left nothing to read. The collection is eclectic, but I would not call it my personal library. Along the years, I have stuffed too many things in there — photographs, a replica of a Swiss chalet, wooden toys...
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May.18.2013
I have envy for writers who fill hundreds of filing cards to take notes for their novels. I imagine them shuffling the deck and doing marvellous tricks. And I find it impressive when authors have sheets of paper filling their walls, sticky notes posted all over, with lines and arrows and question...
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May.18.2013
I've told the story a number of times, usually to close friends or fellow authors, but I decided I'd put it down on paper to share with everyone.
My first professional submission. And it was a doozie.
Y'see, I was twelve years old and there was this program on CBC Television called "Pencil Box" and...
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May.18.2013
There is a method to the madness that affects writers. It's recorded on crumbling papyrus and stored securely in a box that is padlocked, encased with chains and sealed with Gorilla Glue. For good measure, a wizard and a witch cast a magical spell that cannot be broken for several centuries.
A...
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May.17.2013
I was tempted to title this post “The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner,” because that’s exactly how I’m feeling this week.
When I’m writing for print publication, I become a very careful writer. I hone my prose. I go for precision. It’s the way I was taught, by writers like David Jauss, Sue...
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May.15.2013
Listening to Neil Gaiman’s commencement address of last year caused me to reflect on my “career” and stimulated dormant creative urges. I placed career in quotes as like Neil, I did not develop a career path or attend college first. I was handed a press pass at seventeen, given a scholarship to a...
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