Some writers don’t know what’s going to happen next when they sit down at their computers. Others follow their outlines religiously. Sir Terry Pratchett, author of the Disc World books, compared his process of writing novels to wood carving on his website: You find the lump of tree (the big central theme that gets you … More Writing Novels
Let me start with a disclaimer. I tried NaNoWri National Novel Writing Month once about six years ago. I wound up stopping about halfway through with a tangled mess. It taught me that I really have to have one scene written up to the level of a semi-polished draft before moving on. But it was the … More Some Advice for Those in NaNoWriMo
Writers have co-opted an old expression for their own use: That which does not kill us, gives us something to write about. Right now I’m in the process of editing Calyn’s darkest moment. As I work through it, I’m keeping in mind a couple of experiences that I had. The first was being bitten by a … More That Which Does Not Kill Us…
I wrote up a writing prompt for My Word Playground. It shares my technique for putting two or more characters together and letting them interact without worrying about trying to build a scene complete with action and dialogue. I enjoyed checking out writer Lynne Marie’s playground while I tried to figure out what I wanted to write about. This … More Letting Your Characters Talk
Everything I ever needed to know about writing I learned at an SCBWI conference. Okay. That’s a bit of an exaggeration. I’ve read some very good books on writing like Natalie Goldberg’s WRITING DOWN THE BONES and Christopher Vogler’s THE WRITER’S JOURNEY. But I tended to get these recommendations from people that I met at … More The Clues that Whisper
Sometimes it can take a long time for an idea to become a book. I remember that the initial idea for SUSPECT came to me in 1997 when I was reading about a winery in either Hermann or Augusta, Missouri. It was reopening some of its old cellars after years of disuse. I remember thinking “What … More The First Draft of SUSPECT
I don’t remember how I heard about the Missouri Mentorship for the first time. It could have been a mass email. Or the announcement could have just come in an article for MO SCRIBBLES, Missouri’s newsletter for the local chapter of the SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators). But when I found out about the opportunity … More The Missouri Mentorship
The driver of the shuttle van rolled down the window and spoke rapidly in French. Shortly after the answering squawk from the speaker phone, the gate swung open slowly, untouched by human hands. Intellectually, I knew that a small motor was performing the work, but the grounds of the Abbaye de Royoument had already begun to … More “Don’t treat your characters like marionettes!”
Today as I was mowing the lawn, I thought of a way to bring all of plot lines together for the darkest moment. And I figured out when to have my character come to a truly horrible realization. There’s a reason I don’t have my kids mow and why I shovel by hand instead of … More Mowing the Lawn II
Usually, when I’m having trouble moving ahead with a novel, I use a variation of Natalie Goldberg’s cafe writing that she shared in WRITING DOWN THE BONES. But yesterday, I decided that I wanted to write on patio of our backyard garden while our waterfall splashed and gurgled in the background. I brought coffee. (I’d trained myself … More Writing the Scene that Doesn’t Want to Be Written
Kristin Wolden Nitz 