Category Archives: Writing

Tykone and Rickard

Did I mention I met some of my characters in real life? Here’s Tykone. A smidge older, perhaps, than in the book. And lacking context. He was not a lot taller than me, which was part of what flagged me I’d found Tyko. Yes, I told him why I wanted  Read more »

Speaking of Swans

Did you know there are black swans? I was playing with the idea before I knew it was real, then Google informed me it wasn’t all in my head. I’ve switched noveling focus, from Lindorm to Shadow Swan (I imagine I’ll get a page up for it, next), while I  Read more »

Reveling in Rest

I had a very, um, productive second-half of the week, and a corresponding sense of accomplishment and pride (and relief) in what I’ve completed. This week I’ve been hauling feed bags, carrying loads of straw, and shoveling chicken poop. I’ve joked with people that I’m getting fit the old-fashioned way–  Read more »

Getting Personally Practical

Sometimes I think the reason I continually return to the idea of Storytelling is because I am looking for ways to  tie my story-compulsive brain back to my real life as the dedicated mother of three brilliant, sensitive children who need me to be connected to them. So, with this  Read more »

There’s More Than One Kind of Writers’ Block

I don’t know why I never thought of it before, but it’s true. For the longest time I enjoyed a smugly self-satisfied sense that (due to my limited writing time or imagination or some wonderful gift) I almost never suffered from writers’ block. I made this determination based on the  Read more »

February 7, 2012Permalink 1 Comment

Influencing Songs

I’ve said before how I collect songs as a sort of emotional personality profile, or as emotional plot-points in a novel. Sometimes those emotional plot points turn the song on its head. This one for example:

Teaching Writing to Children

So I’ve had two moms in the last month ask me (as a homeschooling mom and a writer), how is it I teach my children to write. I’ll get back to you on that in 15 years or so.  When I actually know how it is they learned. In the  Read more »

January 15, 2012Permalink 1 Comment

NaNoWriMo 2011 in Review

Glad I did it, glad it’s done.   50,648 words since November 1. Happy to take a breather from creating reality. Next project is getting ready for a talk on personality theory (Meyers-Briggs, as I’ve been writing about on my family blog). It’s scheduled for January 18 if anyone local wants  Read more »

December 2, 2011Permalink 4 Comments

NaNoWriMo Update

I just passed 29K tonight.  That means I’m almost caught up with yesterday’s  writing goal (30K) I’m very glad to have learned two things– The second female character I introduced isn’t a complete idiot. (For a while I had to wonder if she was.) [spoiler] the guy I killed the  Read more »

November 19, 2011Permalink 2 Comments

NaNoWriMo 2011

I think it was Steven King in his book On Writing  who said the Writer is as much an artist as the sculptor– and maybe more, since the writer must create the raw material he then shapes into his work of art. This is one of the reasons I find  Read more »

November 3, 2011Permalink 1 Comment