Writing Time, Part 82. Designing Plans for a Writing Life

If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much. –Jim Rohn In every profession, success experts agree: set your course. If not, not only do we writers not get done what we dream of doing, we end up […]

Writing Time, Part 81. In the Mood for Writing

Self-discipline rarely goes amiss, but what if a writer examines a great writing mood and figures out how to encourage it? For example, planning not only a time for writing but getting in the mood for writing as well. Everybody is different, of course. I’ve heard good writing moods encouraged by: Spending time alone in a […]

Writing Time, Part 80. 10 Minutes and 1 Strategy for Moving Along a Manuscript

For those of us attempting to fit our full-time writing careers into our full-time lives, one great two-step strategy may help. Ask What one action comes next? Chunk the next stage of work down, to the smallest possible size. Of course, we keep the big picture—the whole book, series, career— in mind, but when there […]

Writing Time, Part 79. Setting Goals, Dreaming Lifestyles

Here’s a question for a writer: What does the ideal day, week, year in a writing career look like? A friend of mine, a wise and lovely woman, filled to the gills with integrity, and inspiring to all, says Think about it on a big scale. Say you’re making a huge income through your writing […]

Writing Time, Part 78. Taking a Stab at It

I’m always amazed when writing websites offer “How do I get started?” as a first question for beginning writers and novelists. I’m not even sure whether I believe in “beginning writers”. We’re emerging writers, certainly, but many of us began when we were about eight. If we want to write a novel, we’ve probably been […]

Writing Time, Part 77. Creating Something New

One of the great things about being a writer, and living an author’s life, is that we can be confident that we’re making a difference in the world. Each turning point, thrill, laugh, satisfying ending we write, is an act of creation, leaving the sphere of readership a little richer. Jean Rhys wrote, “All of writing […]

Writing Time, Part 76. An Editor Dishes

We’re reading manuscripts at Pulp Literature Press, and what strikes me first is the talent that comes through our e-portals. But, like most small publishers, we accept very few manuscripts in the end. It’s hard, turning down good writers. Often it’s because we’ve no more room for superheroes and wish we had detectives, or vice […]

Writing Time, Part 75. Towards Confidence in Narrative Structure

On a panel at the Creative Ink Festival, three of us are talking about our planning processes. The first describes himself as a “pantser”. He writes what comes next, and doesn’t worry about outlines. He knows thinks hard about his story and its turnings; he doesn’t write it all down. The second is a “move sections […]

Stella Ryman and the Fairmount Manor Mysteries by Mel Anastasiou

“You know a story’s good when you keep finding yourself laughing out loud.” Thanks for that review, reader! Stella Ryman walked right up to me almost 4 years ago. I was hanging about in a nursing home corridor, waiting to help move an enormous television into an elderly acquaintance’s new bedroom. I asked myself, What if I lived […]

Writing Time, Part 74. Creating Suspense, 3 Ways

This is the third in a series of posts on creating tension and one on sustaining suspense. I’m on panels talking about this at Creative Ink in Burnaby, BC, so it seems like a good moment to address ways to accomplish this. If we can create suspense, and sustain tension as we plot and draft, then […]