Sarah Aronson
Great advice: Take three (My book, not my life, is a freitag plot line.)
Structure is freedom. This advice was given to me by the late, great Norma Fox Mazer. She told me: when you know what you are going to write…when you know what you want to say…it’s a whole lot easier to say it. She was the one who taught me: don’t worry about VOICE until you…
Great advice: take two
When you read it in the ladies’ room, you KNOW it has to be true. What I love most about this photo? When I was having trouble with a manuscript, the great Deborah Brodie told me: Eat dessert first! In other words: write what you want to. Don’t worry about the hard scenes. OR the…
Best Advice: take one
Don’t save that revelation for later: spend it now! What happens next is ALWAYS more interesting than the filler you would have created, pacing the reader for what you already know.
For 12.12.12, from yesterday’s walk
I call her Church door Mona Lisa. Do you see a smile, a frown, a skull, or a character from Captain Underpants?
Quote of the day
Courtesy of Ernest Hemingway:
Waiting for an important email.
Is there anything more distracting to the process of writing than waiting for an important letter???? No there is not. That’s why, the motto of my day is: take a break! Get the errands done. Stay busy. Don’t think you can be productive when you are distracted!
Give yourself some quiet time
Yesterday, when my writing felt a bit off, I gave myself some quiet time. Such a gift! Quiet time…or still time…often helps me put things in order. Or figure out what isn’t working. Sometimes, I stumble on something (literally) or overhear a piece of dialogue that was just what I needed. Nice view, too. Right?…
Planning ahead
In my writers.com classes, I often (read: almost always) ask the writer to come up with a chapter to chapter synopsis, to analyze the main action and main emotion of EACH and EVERY scene. What this helps me do: pinpoint the places where nothing is happening….and where the emotion is not evolving. NOTE: before I…
Try it!
Are you working on a final draft? If so, let’s be brave. Read your work out loud. Read to a friend or an empty room. Either way, you will hear things that your eyes might have missed!