Writing Process | Writing Process
Feb.22.2012
When it comes to defining moments, I have only a few. One of these took place at Sea World and it impacted my career choice of being a writer. I'll tell you the ending before I tell you the beginning.
The end is that I write every day because I want to, not because I have to. Well, I mean –...
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Feb.04.2012
An Uncertain Age began as a short story. “What happens next?” a few friends asked. And so I began to wonder myself. I only knew that a woman had met a man on the Eurostar…
A story has a curious power. It is as if it already exists in some far-off realm, is only awaiting its just translation....
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Jan.03.2012
Lawrence Hill, a good friend and hugely successful writer, wrote to me recently to congratulate me on the success of my recent novel, OUR DAILY BREAD, which has been named to the Boston Globe and and The Globe & Mail as one of the best books of the year. (Yea!) Published by Wordcraft...
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Dec.12.2011
“Don’t burn over criticism. Stand up to it like a man.” – Carole Lombard
One of the most important things you can learn as a writer is to take notes. I don’t mean dictation– I mean the editorial notes you will get, at some point in your career, from your editor, your agent, your publisher,...
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Nov.05.2011
I need some inspiration. My novel is floundering. I'm not sure if I even have a plot. It feels more like an exploration of characters whom I don't know. Last night I resorted to writing a scene in which my main character is being reprimanded by her English teacher for having a convoluted story, no...
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Oct.25.2011
It's been too long since I've posted to Red Room. And now Fall has arrived. Summer skipped through like a kid headed to the candy store....here and gone but for a few sweet moments. But that's okay. Fall is my favorite. And Fall in Eastern Oregon is lingering this year. There's something about Fall...
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Oct.06.2011
When people ask authors, “Where do you get your ideas?”, authors tend to clam up or worse, get sarcastic - because the only real answer to that is, “Where DON’T I get ideas?” or even more to the point, “How do I turn these ideas OFF?”
The thing is, “Where do you get your ideas?” is not...
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Aug.25.2011
So, while I'm waiting for the publication of my new book, I'm turning back to the work-in-progress, which has me in something of a twist.
It's been a relief, frankly, to put it aside for a couple of months while I concentrate on the 'bidness' of publishing. However, The Big Dog now wants...
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Jul.19.2011
Hi Red Room! I've been away for a while, writing and recovering from writing. But I am back and here's what's on my mind!
Yesterday I was cranky. I was cranky because no matter what I tried, my brain did not want to do any work. It wasn’t just that it didn’t want to write; most writers run into...
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Jun.10.2011
Back in 2001, I was writing a horror novel set around Slab City and the Salton Sea in California’s Imperial Valley. To be called The Slab, the book would deal with the horror of Alzheimer’s disease, and the terrible things that human beings do to one another, in addition to the supernatural...
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