I do intend to get back to blogging.  If nothing else, it’s served as a great project diary.  But my husband and I are going to be moving soon.  I’m going to have to dedicate almost all my time to packing, sorting and cleaning and unpacking for the next month or so.  But I’m hoping … More Taking a Break

There’s something to be said for prolonged meditation on a scene.  As my husband and I have been hunting for houses and preparing our house to go on the market, I haven’t had a lot of time for my own writing.  So today I sat down for forty-five minutes and popped out about 400 words.  … More Meditating on Scenes and Characters

I’ve known for some time that Calyn’s story came to an end rather abruptly.  More than one critique group has told me so.  But I was defeated every time that I tried to come up with one more chapter.  Every possible scene seemed to be wrapped in cotton candy while the cutesiest unicorns and bunny … More Writing the Chapter That Doesn’t Want to Be Written

At some point, the SCBWI Bulletin will publish my poem, WORD WRANGLING, which has the opening line of “Never force a metaphor.”  While I fully support that recommendation, I would argue that you can play with metaphors and maybe even have them over for dinner.  An extremely useful metaphor dropped into my lap after a trip to Yellowstone that ought to … More Finding Metaphors

I”m another person who’s constantly checking the status of Hurricane Irene from a distance.  Since I teach remotely for the Institute of Children’s Literature, I have a lot of students in harms’ way.  I’m praying that they and their stories are all safe and dry.  

Despite my “Escape from the Seiser Alm” post, I’ve found myself going back there more than once. But that’s part of my standard operating procedure since I can’t just leave things at the level of what Annie LaMott calls “a sh***y first draft” and move on. One important reason for this is my Dreamweavers’ critique … More Over 12,000 Words

Some writers out there are jugglers.  They can easily switch from project to project.  In fact, there are those who strongly feel that you should have more than one project out there so that you can jump to something else if you feel blocked.  Since I am by nature both a plodder and a polisher, … More Juggling Projects

I’m not sure how many times that I’ve finished Calyn’s story, but I might be able to work it out with a piece of paper and a pencil. I can say, however, that it’s gone through two major revisions. The first one was something that I thought I’d never do: I started with a blank … More Revising Again