Since I was a kid, I’ve thought of “journal” as more of a verb than a noun. Some kids played handball, some skipped rope, some chased boys; I journaled. It was serious business, the kind of serious business that compelled me to ask my parents for a special birthday gift — a fireproof safe to — Read More
Category: Writing Process
Here’s the thing
I’m not writing. At all. I mean, I’m writing for work, but that’s an entirely different animal. I’m enjoying that animal. I just haven’t felt any need or desire to write fiction. This truth has been looming for a while, but it really hit me today when I passed by a car with a bumper — Read More
For those uninspired days…
I see this as a more violent take on the phrase, “Necessity is the mother of invention.”
Confessions of an unpublished novelist
Sometimes I think it would be liberating if all my old manuscript pages went up in flames. When I say, “I’m researching,” it’s just code for, “I’m not writing.” I go months “researching.” There are moments when my characters totally perplex me. Those moments are terrifying. If I want to bail on a social event, — Read More
Quote of the month
When I was young (like, elementary school), I spent an almost-outrageous amount of time on character development when I wrote stories. I drew pictures of what I thought the character looked like, ripped images out of magazines that reminded me of her, made lists of her favorites (food, color, TV show, band). I sketched her — Read More
The writing cave
I’ve been a fan of Molly Wizenburg for a few years, thanks to a dear friend who turned me onto her blog, Orangette. When her book, A Homemade Life, was announced, I pre-ordered it. And I wasn’t disappointed when it finally arrived on my doorstep. Her book, like her blog, is about food, but not — Read More
What do all these writers have in common?
William Styron John Keats William Faulkner Leo Tolstoy Lord Byron F. Scott Fitzgerald Edgar Allen Poe Charles Dickens Tennessee Williams Ernest Hemingway Joseph Conrad Fyodor Dostoyevsky Graham Greene Henry James Susanna Kaysen Herman Melville Sylvia Plath Anne Rice JK Rowling Amy Tan Mark Twain Virginia Woolf David Foster Wallace It has been said that all — Read More
Advice I don’t take
Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Don Murray says the three worst pieces of advice he was ever given were: 1. If you like it, cut it out. 2. Know what you are going to say before you write it. 3. Don’t write what’s been said before. I’ve been given these gems of advice before myself and they — Read More
Are you DONE yet?
When people ask, they don’t do so maliciously, but what the writer hears is impatience, criticism, and judgment. The question I’m referring to?: “So, how’s that book coming along?” Whenever I get this inquiry, a slew of AKAs run through my head: – What the hell is taking so long? – Is this the same — Read More
Writing like a man
Picture this: I’m 23. I’ve just recently completed the Master’s in Professional Writing program at USC. Another graduate is working as an editor for a reputable New York agent. She takes a liking to me and my writing. She invites me to a party at her house in the Hollywood Hills to meet this agent. — Read More