Writers’ Craft 10: Revision
You’ve just keyed in the final word, placed punctuation, and the sense of accomplishment that settles over you is profound. You’re done.
2020
Writers’ Craft 9: Research
I remember interviewing biographer and historian Marian Fowler for The Canadian Author and Bookman, back when the Canadian Authors Association published that wonderful writers’ periodical.
Writers’ Craft 8: World Building
Doesn’t matter what genre of fiction you’re writing, it is imperative you create a real and believable environment. Do this successfully, and your reader becomes further immersed in the story you’re telling not only through excellent characters and point of view, but through the world you’ve created.
Writers’ Craft 7: Dialogue
One of the common problems I see as an editor is clumsy dialogue. So often a writer feels the need to explain the dialogue with all manner of cues and instructions, as though they were writing a screen play, or giving notes to an actor. Writing dialogue for general reading is quite different.
Writers’ Craft 6: Tense
Choosing a tense for your story usually isn’t a big deal. Most fiction and even nonfiction is told in past tense, as in: They went there, and then they travelled further.
Writers’ Craft 5: Point of View
Point of view is simply that: who is telling your story?
Writers’ Craft 4: Character Development
One of the most powerful and essential skills in your writing arsenal is the ability to develop and write believable characters who step off the page into the minds of your readers. But it would seem it’s also one of the hardest skills to effectively master. Do it well, and you haunt the thoughts of your readers.
Writers’ Craft 3: Outlining
I was going to make this entire Writers’ Craft series as vlogs. However, I have a problem with my ISP, in that they have not upgraded the lines in our wee village, and so uploading to YouTube is problematic. The first two videos required an overnight upload, with nothing else eating up broadband.
Writers’ Craft 2: Genesis of Ideas
Second installment in the Writers’ Craft series: Genesis of Ideas
Writers’ Craft video series
Over the next weeks I’ll feature short videos in which I discuss writers’ craft, dispensing knowledge accumulated over the past 40 years in the field of publishing. This first installment is Workspace and Equipment.
Pandemic, publishers and writers
I learned this week, with regret, the closure of another excellent small publisher, Bundoran Press. Headed by Hayden Trenholm, Elizabeth Westbrook-Trenholm, and Mike Rimar, Bundoran had a good run in the SF genre, giving voice to Canadian SF authors, and producing work which received literary acclaim.
Anne, COVID, and plunging back into the novel
Started to watch the new, and apparently last, season of CBC’s Anne with an E. While I quite enjoyed the first two seasons, found the exploration of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s beloved Islander character from the point of view of PTSD survivor a fascinating and well-drawn perspective, I’m afraid just short minutes into…
And just like that…
Eight weeks after taking on elder care, it seems it’s over. After an explosive and dramatic Friday, during which our in-laws staged a clandestine flit, the Old Stone House has returned to quietude and harmony. Remember what I wrote earlier about sometimes people don’t want a rescue, can’t accept help? Seems that’s very true.
