writing tips
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Gorgeous sentences, breath-taking images, metaphors that lead to a flash of insight… there are all great things. But are they the most important? Go read the series Lisa Cron is running at her site, Wired for Story, “Everything You Learned About Writing is Wrong.” At first, it bothered me. I love great writing, but she…
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The main thing I try to do is write as clearly as I can. I rewrite a good deal to make it clear. ~E.B. White, The New York Times, August 3, 1942 Courtesy fightmedics.net Writing a novel has three parts to it and was thinking how they’re each a marathon unto themselves and…
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In reflecting on my trip to Kenya, I’ve noticed a change and that is wanting to be in action. It would help explain why I’m a bit stuck in my writing as well. To prevent or get over writer’s block, it helps to do something. The what doesn’t matter as much as the doing. It…
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Are you stuck in the doldrums and cannot finish your book? Welcome to the club. I don’t know a novelist who doesn’t get bored, fed up, finds the energy is gone, etc. in the middle of a novel, not to mention sick to death of the thing after going over it repeatedly in the rewrite process.…
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You’re probably familiar with verbal tics – we all have them to an extent and they are part of what makes a person’s speech unique. Lately, I’ve met a number of people in a wide variety of settings using the word yeah repeated three times in quick succession (part of a movie or TV show I’ve missed?)…
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Everywhere in Los Angeles, there is noise. There are few waiting rooms, retail or public spaces that don’t have music playing or blasting. I’ve been keeping my place quiet. Sometimes, I seek out a cafe to write and the noise fades into the background as I work, but most of the time, I like the…
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Last weekend, I attended the New York Pitch Conference. Just so you all know, I was terrified beforehand and that was after years of putting myself in situations where I had to pitch! I (mostly) got over myself via Women in Film back when I was part of a production services business. They had monthly…
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The most interesting bookstores and the most interesting libraries. There’s a saying from my old Drama classes, if it ain’t on the page, it ain’t on the stage. Likewise, if you’re writing a novel, if it’s in your head and doesn’t make it to the page, the reader will never know. Great post here on upping…
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While trying to decide whether to go see a play (Burn This in Los Angeles), I read in one of the reviews, “…the production ‘doesn’t agitate from an essence.’” A great phrase that the reviewer borrowed from a friend. Most writing instructors find a way to say the same thing – and it’s related to…
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When I was hard pressed for time – and there can be many reasons, most often a day job and/or small children, an ailing parent, etc. – I learned to write in 10 minute increments. I know writers (and am most emphatically not one) who get up at 4 am to write for two hours…
Diane Sherlock 
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