writer's block
November 13, 2008
- With just over 13,000 words to go, I'm stuck. I've just resolved several major conflicts in the book and now I'm left with only one real conflict and it's the end scene and it's just not time for that yet. I still have a villian who can be used, but how to use him is the key. He's already betrayed the good guys once and they know it. The trick is going to be getting him back in with them ...
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November 9, 2008
- This week I showed my students Adaptation, written by Charlie Kaufman and directed by Spike Jonze, a free-wheeling adaptation of Susan Orlean's nonfiction book The Orchid Thief. The metafictive film is as much about writing as it is about orchids, maybe even more so, and it occurred to me as I was watching it for the umpteenth time that most viewers would not identify with the agony the ...
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November 2, 2008
- I’d like to introduce you to my first guest blogger, my colleague Vicki Weiland, a freelance developmental editor and speaker working in the San Francisco Bay area and specializing in business, fine arts, and history. In addition, Vicki serves as a board member of the Bay Area Independent Publishers Association and the Women’s National Book Association-SF/Bay Area. I asked Vicki if she ...
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October 18, 2008
- Has someone already coined the phrase "blog block?" I've been so busy adding content to my published work today that now I can no longer remember all those great ideas I had for a blog. Actually, I'm looking for some travel ideas that don't require traveling (sounds like a Zen koan..) I'm serious, though. Any ideas?
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October 15, 2008
- Discovered http://books.google.com./ alllowes you to dip into whole pages of books for source and historical material. the Google source won't print, but pages are avail to read, and shows where to buy or borrow. Excellent. John Steinbeck had a wonderful way of getting going in the morning, best illustrated by "The East of Eden Letters, Journal of a Novel." 1969. Not sure ...
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October 15, 2008
- The universe, in its infinite wisdom, decided to throw me a bone yesterday. I was suffering from writer's block. I don't even like to admit that I'm suffering from it when I am. As if giving voice to the stone wall between me and my characters will somehow make it even harder to scale than it already is. However, the universe must have had a little extra time, perhaps there were no stars going ...
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October 14, 2008
- What happes to me doesn't feel like a block. A block is your dog refusing to get out of the doorway after you've had knee surgery. Kick the dog (with your good leg, and go on). What it feels like to me is sleep walking, death, a need to sit long periods and stare into the TV. If you've watched every rerun of Law and Order, you can relate.I was fortunate enough to find Elizabeth George's ...
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September 18, 2008
- This is it! My first ever blog, first ever entry. BFD, right? Get over yourself, huh? Well, what else do us writers have, anyway? I'm in between edits now. I'm waiting for external reviews to come back before my second book goes into production at University of California Press. I know you writers out there are famililar with the drill, or some variant of the drill. I've written ...
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September 10, 2008
- Queen Elizabeth's thankless poetSep 10, 2008, 11:00 GMT Poet Laureate Andrew Motion says writing for the British royal family is a "thankless" task which is "incredibly difficult".Andrew won the prestigious post - which sees him write poems to celebrate major state and government events, such as royal birthdays and weddings - nine years ago, but ...
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September 2, 2008
- A few weeks back I became involved in an online discussion with a group of writers on the topic of writer's block. Considering that we're usually a convivial bunch, the topic grew surprisingly heated. There were basically two factions: those, like me, who claimed to have never experienced it; and those who had experienced it and felt that the other side was dismissive of their experiences. The ...
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