I love writing accents. Giving a character a voice that really fits him is so satisfying — and fun. And there are many different accents. There are the national accents, the regional dialects, the local twangs, the tradesmen’s lingo. There are variances through education and age. Real people even “tweak their speak” on a whim, […]
My daughter recently approached me, a novel in hand, asking what a certain phrase meant. Had the problem involved only a single word, I’d have encouraged her to look it up in the dictionary. We would then have discussed the meaning of the word, making sure she understood it both standing alone and in the […]
Years ago, in journalism school, we students were taught to choose our verbs with great care. Verbs, we were assured, were to express action, but not nuance. For example, we were not to write, “Politician Paul claims to be working on the problem,” or “Politican Paul professes to be working on the problem.” Instead, we […]
I read a thread on a discussion board recently that got me chewing over a question. The question was, “What motivates you to write?” I was as intrigued by the answers as by the question. Two respondents admitted that ego had something to do with it (I found that to be an enlightening and honest […]
Query letters, like resumes, are some of the hardest documents to write. Not only do they require writers to condense their story and expertise onto one page; they also require writers to do something very few people feel they can do well — sell themselves. Self-exaltation, for most of us, is counterintuitive. It’s a clumsy […]
There are a lot of ways to tell a story. You can write reams and reams of text. You can condense to single lines of crisp copy. You can use slow, sweeping panoramas or quick, flashing images. You can employ breaks in scenes or breaks in audio. There are as many ways to tell a […]
Some books have characters which are so richly developed that, before the ride’s over, you feel intimately connected with them. You can picture them practically standing in front of you. You know their likes and dislikes, their mannerisms, even what they would and would not say. That has always fascinated and amazed me; that I […]
As I’d gone through the process of thinking about, and then writing, stories over the years, I’d asked myself the question many agents and publishers say that authors are to consider: “Where does your work fit in the market?” Many books / websites / interviews from these professionals and many trade discussion boards assure authors […]
I had the honor this year of winning the “Best Reporting Award” in the Excellence in Wisconsin Journalism Competition. It is an award given by one’s peers and is, thus, very meaningful for its recipients, myself included. Competitions and critiques aren’t always easy to face, we all know. No one wants to be passed over […]
There is just something so wonderful about formatting a manuscript. I wouldn’t have thought it possible before going through the process. Since then, I’ve found I love it. Formatting all those hundreds of pages means I’ve finally hit the final stages. Formatting is making my manuscript presentable for others to judge. I’m making the package […]