Diane Sherlock

  • The Unforgettable Image Part Two: The Link Between Imagination and Memory

    by guest blogger Lee Stoops:  In our generation of images and scenes, we tend to recreate the things that have strongly affected us. I need to note something about cliché here. Something is labeled cliché when it affects (or has affected) a lot of people. The problem with cliché, and why it doesn’t work for…

  • Wrestling Alligators

    Here is the audio version of the prologue to my latest novel,WRESTLING ALLIGATORS. It’s a ways off, but am looking forward to recording all of my novels. If you are a voiceover actor, musician, etc., check out Zen Pro Audio. Warren Dent will take good care of you. Amazing prices and stellar customer service. (update:…

  • Reading coming up at Roar Shack!

    ROAR SHACK A Partnership with Portuguese Artists Colony Presents:   Home At Last   Sunday, April 14, 2013 at 826LA 4 – 5:30 p.m. Note Location and Time Change!!! Thank God for books and music and things I can think about. –Daniel Keyes Roar Shack is a collective of writers and artists, and over the…

  • so much &*^#$@%( hyperbole!

    Want to stand out with your writing? Or in general? Remove hyperbole from your writing and, for that matter, your speech. Have you noticed that people now seem to be incapable of speaking without it? We’ve become gushers of adjectives, adverbs, and expletives. A touch of hyperbole can strengthen a scene, but if it’s not…

  • What’s the rush?

    In the last post, I briefly addressed the dragging of feet that can go along with finishing your work or getting it out into the world. We cannot know if success will come quickly, after many years or not at all. All we can to is to try to be prepared and that means making…

  • Writing & Money

    What is your relationship to money? We tend to accept it as a given that if we create, we will be poor, but what it we challenge that assumption? I contend that the traits that most often lead us into the arts, or at least into creating fiction, are many of the ones that limit…

  • And then what if…?

    Curiosity is the engine of art. The desire to know or learn and the desire to create come together in the best writing. Probably the two defining questions for the writer are ‘what if?’ and ‘what happens next?’ To which Lisa Cron would add ‘and so?’ (read her book Wired for Story to find out…

  • Who Needs A Mentor?

    I’ve been very blessed with great mentors. Rob Roberge and Gayle Brandeis in particular helped shape my work. Cheryl Strayed totally saved me in workshop – saved Growing Chocolate – with her suggestion to flip the last two chapters. I did have to go back and clean some things up, but that change kept the tone consistent all…

  • Kurt Vonnegut’s Seventh Rule for Writing Fiction

    We’re almost there – here’s #7 of 8 rules for writing fiction by Mr. Vonnegut as delivered by guest blogger Aaron Gansky. by adgansky 7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia. –Kurt Vonnegut Pneumonia, maybe, and…

  • Kurt Vonnegut’s Sixth Rule for Writing Fiction

    Well, this is embarrassing – I lost track of the days, but better late than never. #6! Thanks, Aaron. Now let’s all go make life difficult for our characters. Also, a hearty shoutout to friend and mentor Cheryl Strayed: Her memoir Wild hit #1 on the New York Times bestseller list!! Now here’s Aaron: by…

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