Just finishing the second chapter of the latest novel project in my life, I learned two things: always finish your chapters with a crisp, cold drink, and with an expectation to deviate from your plan. For this novel project, the fourth I’ve ever seriously worked on in my lifetime, I tried something different. I tried … More The Learning Series: Chapter 2
Thanking the barrister, I sit down with my double chocolate chip, coconut cookie and open my laptop, punching the Wi-Fi password with flare. I’m ready to work. My notebook, stuffed with hand-written sentences, crossed out and re-written to almost illegibility, is beside me. My iPod is fully charged with my favourite instrumental, not-too-distracting-music. My fingers … More TTQ: Cafe or Quiet, Where Should You Write?
Welcome, to the very first Thoughtful Thursday Question, a new weekly series where I answer any question and spin the answer to relate to writing. Today’s question: Alcohol or drugs, do they enhance or hinder your writing process? This one is a hard one for me to answer, mainly because I have little experience writing … More TTQ: Alcohol or drugs, do they enhance or hinder your writing process?
I fear the second draft. While other writers use this time to carve their rough diamonds to perfection, I stare at my manuscripts and wonder how to start. What do I peel away? What words will be left behind? Will the draft only need stitches, here or there, a slight Botox fill, or total facial … More Polishing a Diamond in the Rough—aka, Your First Draft
Challenge one of three, on Esther Newton’s blog, was to use “chocolate” in a limerick. I got a little carried away and wrote three, although only the last one follows the rules. We’re trying, Mother Earth. The air is ripe with money, And the screaming fans, sweet honey. When oil is on the plate, … More An Inspired Writing Challenge
A short story can have many faces. They can span lifetimes, or show a snapshot of one particular life changing moment. What the short story can accomplish is up to the writer–how they utilize this story telling tool. A stories effectiveness in relaying a message is usually tied to how the writer chooses to showcase … More What Can Crisis Do For You?
In the past few years, horror writer John C. Adams has seen countless short stories published in multiple anthologies. Her work has been longlisted for the Aeon award twice, once in 2012 and again in 2013, and she currently works as a trainee reader for Albedo One Magazine, Ireland’s longest-running and foremost magazine for the … More Horror Writer John C. Adams talks Writing, Inspiration, and the Making of a Good Story
Jogging is a sport with clear markers of success. As you run, and (if you are a beginner like me) tell yourself not to pass out, you can measure your efforts with landmarks. Run until that tree, run until you pass that house with the cute lawn gnome, run until you make it to the … More Run! Run to the End!
Have you ever had a series of days where something always seemed to go wrong? However, it is a little thing, so on its own, it doesn’t seem so bad. Yet, another little thing goes wrong, and then another… Soon everything that is going wrong culminates into one horrible feeling of overwhelming self-pity… yes, I … More All the Little Things…They Turn Big
As I wrote today, I found myself writing a sentence that definitely wasn’t true, but at the time, it was almost cathartic. “Why do I even bother?” I deleted the sentence almost immediately afterwards, and began the process of finding love in writing once again. After a rejection, my ego always takes a bit of … More When a Writer Questions the Why
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