I recently finished a great book featuring a character I just love. The writer of this character has made a lot of money from a successful series of books centred around this one persona. After discussing it with some friends, I realized one of the things that made the story so readable was that the protagonist was believable. And what made her believable?
She wasn’t perfect. Read more
It began innocuously enough.
The setting aside of writing time for all the demands of the season.I was not to know the full repercussions of this decision until weeks later.
Way back in December, I found myself immersed in the Read more
From the first word we ever typed, penned, or scribbled, all of us who have written anything have always dreamed of one day seeing our work published.
And that’s what happened this week for The Ascribe Writers: the book launch of the first anthology of our short stories, Beneath the Surface: A Collection of Grey-Bruce Stories. Read more
Writers in Canada in the 21st century have it easy.
We have lap tops, desk tops, tablets, cell phones. We have virtually infinite resources available in local libraries and on-line to check facts, tweak details, inspire scenarios for any time and setting.
I think we take these things for granted. I know I did.
But not any more. Read more
So I’m working with some of my writing colleagues on an anthology of short stories.
We agreed on a common theme to give the stories context and cohesion, and the ideas were brilliant and coming fast and furious. As anyone who belongs to one knows, the best thing about being in a writers’ group is it inspires you to hunker down to your own work. As soon as they come up with ideas out loud, you find yourself spurred to create and contribute your own. So many ideas – it whets the appetite of the imagination.
I made an outline; I made notes. Copious notes. Dialogues. I could see the characters in my head, I could imagine where they lived, the routes they moved along on. The words came, the pages filled up. Read more
Yes, I’m working on a novel. And it’s coming along fine. But there’s still a long way to go until it is written, edited, published, and receiving splendid reviews and whopping cash advances from publishing houses.
Speaking of cash, I needed to generate some. I wanted to do it by writing something shorter than a great long novel. My friend suggested freelance writing. Editors are often looking for well-written articles for their magazines, he said.
OK, but what could I write about? I asked myself. I love research, I love the outdoors, and I love history. OK. My first step was coming up with an idea I thought would be fairly unique and interesting to people who also love those subjects. Once I had the idea, I fleshed out points that I wanted to cover in that article. I would return to those points later. Read more
This past weekend I was fortunate enough to have an opportunity to take part in something new for me: a writers’ retreat. I didn’t attend the first one the Ascribe writers’ group had organized because I figured, hey, I can write by myself at home any time, can’t I? But after listening to the comments made by members when the group met up after the retreat, I realized I had missed the point.
The point of a writers’ retreat is to get away for the sole purpose of doing nothing but concentrating on your writing. Seems fairly obvious, right? What I didn’t think about – until I took note of what I did in the same time the group was away, were all the interruptions that occur in the course of writing at home. Most of them are so automatic you don’t even notice them: making a meal, running to the store for something last minute, doing that chore on the weekend you didn’t have time to get to during the week, gassing up the car, returning library books. The list goes on, full of little weekend projects and chores that stop the flow of creativity before it even gets a chance to get started. All those little jobs that call out to be done, all those little snippets of time add up, and before you know it, the weekend is ending, and once again you never got to work on that blog, short story, or novel.
Here’s where a writers’ retreat is brilliant: you are not niggled by guilt to do any small jobs or quick chores; you have a space dedicated to work; and you need not stop for anything except when you feel like taking a break. Read more
Someone once wrote “writing is a lonely business”.
We all know the familiar cliché of the author sitting at his or her desk, coffee cups scattered about the work surface, dirty dishes with half-eaten food lying about, and wadded pieces of paper littering the floor and overflowing out of waste bins (ok, maybe only old people like me know that cliché).
The thing is, after all the lectures, grammar rules, tips and recommendations for better play/ novel/short story/ screen play/ writing, – well, the fact is, you’re the only one who can write your work. You. Sitting there, with your note pad, your tablet, your laptop, your desktop.