Memory and learning
Last time I participated in a workshop with Randy Susan Myers, I was struggling with the novel that is now awaiting its fate in the hands of a publisher. It was also only days before my father died. My phone rang in the middle of someone’s reading. I answered...
Writing dreams
They just. won’t. let me. alone. All those thoughts about writing that get translated into bizarre dreams. Last night I dreamt that I was in a house where I’d invited some very unlikely people to live with me. I discovered it was a bad idea, so I decided...
Structure
The idea of structure in a novel used to scare me. I had images of an ossified underpinning that hampered creativity, interrupted the flow of prose and character development. In the past few years, I’ve decided to overcome that fear. I realized that it’s...
Finding the narrative
I’ve discovered I can’t start writing a novel—even if I know how it should begin and end—until I find the narrative thread. Characters can develop on the page as I write, even plot to a certain extent, but I have to have a basic idea of what’s going...Read moreLearn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.