Stupid Work Is Stupid
When present me sat down on the couch and opened my computer …. nothing would happen. Planner that I am, I pulled out my calendar and faced the hard truth.
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Writing Believable Characters
Writing Believable Characters I liked the plot, but I just couldn’t get into this book. The main characters weren’t believable. It’s one of those critiques that is hard to counter. An unbelievable character is like a house guest that’s stayed too long, with everyone silently wishing they would leave or at least hide out in…
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Accepting Rejection
Accepting Rejection What comes after the final draft? Years ago, I had the pleasure of hanging out with science fiction author Joan D. Vinge as she regaled us with an account of printing out the final draft for what would be her first published novel, The Snow Queen. It was late at night, in the dead…
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ReTreat Yourself
ReTreat Yourself Last summer, over a year into the pandemic, my writing process got stale. I had started the pandemic with a goal: write my memoir. And I did for the first six months. I wrote daily and deliberately. I hired an editor and signed up for writing workshops. Then the holiday gods convinced me…
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Time Travel in Memoir
Memoirs are rarely straight chronological narratives, what with the musing we talked about last episode, and they almost always jump forwards and backwards in time. We discuss Judith Barrington...
Musing: Memoir’s Secret Ingredient
We’ve gotten to the part of Judith Barrington’s Writing the Memoir where she covers the actual writing of in a memoir, the words on the page. In addition...
You CAN handle the truth (in your memoir)
Readers seek out memoirs because they want true stories. But the truth, according to Judith Barrington in her book Writing the Memoir, is more than using Google to fact...
Finding Your Memoir’s Form
Chronological, essays, skipping through time, interspersed non-fiction — there are so many forms that memoir can take. Judith Barrington covers several in her book, Writing the Memoir, and in...
Making Your Memoir Matter
Baring one's soul in a memoir is hard work. Convincing others to care is one thing, but to engage in your life story? That's a whole other beast. In...
Truth VS Narrative in Memoir
We’re starting a NEW BOOK - Judith Barrington’s Writing the Memoir. And what better place to start than by discussing what a memoir is, what memoir isn’t, and just...
Time Travel in Memoir
Memoirs are rarely straight chronological narratives, what with the musing we talked about last episode, and they almost always...
Musing: Memoir’s Secret Ingredient
We’ve gotten to the part of Judith Barrington’s Writing the Memoir where she covers the actual writing of...
You CAN handle the truth (in your memoir)
Readers seek out memoirs because they want true stories. But the truth, according to Judith Barrington in her book...
Finding Your Memoir’s Form
Chronological, essays, skipping through time, interspersed non-fiction — there are so many forms that memoir can take. Judith Barrington...
Making Your Memoir Matter
Baring one's soul in a memoir is hard work. Convincing others to care is one thing, but to engage...
Truth VS Narrative in Memoir
We’re starting a NEW BOOK - Judith Barrington’s Writing the Memoir. And what better place to start than by...
Bye Bye Birdy
How do you tackle one of the most famous writing craft books, you take it “Bird by Bird.” That’s...
Why Do You Write?
Well, why do you? The answer for most authors is to get published. But is that the only...
What To Do When You Have Writer’s Block
Anne Lamott (in her Bird by Bird book) says the dreaded writer’s block isn’t about being blocked, it’s about...
Writing Groups: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
Behind most successful authors there is a writing group (at least according to their novel's acknowledgment section). But how...
Writing Advice from the 90s
Some advice is timeless, some is not. In this episode, we evaluate writing techniques from Anne Lamott's book...
Shut (those voices in your head) Up & Write
Sometimes just showing up isn’t enough. You’ve set time aside for writing and instead of your story unfurling on...
Beyond Butt In Chair
We’re onto the second section in Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird — The Writing Frame Of Mind — and...
The Secret to Getting Your Short Stories Publish
Okay, maybe that's a bit of hyperbole, but not by much. In this stand alone episode we talk with Erik Klass, the entrepreneurial editor behind the submission service Submitit...