Word Games and the Writer’s Brain

That smile said he knew he was winning. After more games than I’ll embarrass him by counting, my hubby finally won a round of Blokus. It’s a game of strategy using game pieces of varying shapes that must be fit together with only their corners touching. The player with the least number of pieces leftover

Trying and falling short. Then what?

. Radio personality Ira Glass offers his take on what to do when we aren’t creating the quality we desire… . . What’s your take? It’s fine to say, from the pinnacle of success, that you would have liked people to tell you the climb was going to be a rough one. But if told,

Reading instead of, or in addition to, writing

My post last Friday began with, “I don’t have time to write… or do I?” Silly question. If we’re novelists, we make time, because our passion for storytelling drives us to get the words out. But what about reading? If we’re writers, making time to write can be challenging enough. Who has time to read?

Burying Writing Beneath the Research

Research and Writing, Part 2 I spent a long time researching where to look for that headstone The cemetery name I was given didn’t exist. Eventually, as mentioned in my previous post, I found it, but only after I went out and physically looked for it. With a story in mind, we hunt for books

Can writing fiction change reality?

. Anger hurts. Anger reacts and retaliates. Anger consumes like fire among tinder. Anger rages in so many parts of our world. Wars and political uprisings, invasions, murder and brutality spill from one country to another and onto our own city streets. An ostrich approach is tempting except we know anger won’t disappear just because

Writers Don’t Learn Writing By Writing

Ask reasonably good cooks how they learned their craft and they’ll likely tell you, “By experimenting with recipes… trial and error. You eventually discover what works and what doesn’t, what your family likes and what you shouldn’t bother to make again.” Ask the gourmet-caliber cooks and they’re apt to say they studied at an accredited

Listen Some More

. Censorship is complicated. It’s wrong but sometimes necessary. For instance, what concerned parent hasn’t lifted a sharp knife out of the hands of a toddler, or carefully helped a youngster use a match to light a candle rather than take the chance of that child discovering undeserved pain for himself? Parents and teachers possessing

Learning the Ropes

You don’t know what you don’t know until you start discovering what other people in the know do know. That’s a mouthful, but it’s true. And it’s the reason I am so thankful for all the information provided by other authors, both published and aspiring. I have a mega-shelf of books on the craft of