Okay so here’s the hard truth up front – there are some things about the book Possession by A. S. Byatt that I don’t like. I have a genuine animosity toward books that romanticize affairs, and the character of Maud Bailey I find irritating, and not in a good way, about 90 percent of the…
Editing some of my writing today and here are two revelations about myself – Apparently I’m perfectly happy to use the Oxford comma in my fiction – but I’m always reluctant to use semi-colons. They just feel pretentious to me – I’m not even sure why. I always want to use a comma before I…
Poet Some days, not many, I’m a poet. I rein down the world.Force it to slow until I can seeThe clouds move andWords grab hold. I’m not one of the Emilysor Langston, of course.Who is? But some days,Not many,I’m a poet. -Jenel Alan CreativityPoetryWriting
I love my job – it’s fulfilling and worthwhile and even in the COVID-19 madness I still enjoy it. But… It can be pretty consuming. It’s just creative enough to use my creative energies and demands just enough writing that it uses up my writing energy and at the end of the day I often…
In thinking about this phrase the other day- “They can’t see the forest for the trees”-it occurred to me that you can’t actually see the forest without seeing the trees. So yes, the big picture is important, but individual details and people are the key to understanding the whole. I think that’s why picking the…
I know what I look like. A fourth car has slowed down, it’s a Lexus this time. A blonde driver with dark red lipstick stares through the rain spotted window. They don’t get a lot of pedestrians here. I pull out my phone and try the power button again, but the screen is remorselessly black…
I love a good book about writing, especially one with great exercises. I’m currently working my way through Naming the World: And Other Exercises for the Creative Writer edited by Bret Anthony Johnston. It’s got contributions from different writers who provide a small essay about writing followed by suggested exercises. Not every exercise is interesting or helpful,…
Spent three hours today working on getting a novel manuscript ready for ebook publishing with Amazon. One good thing about going through the agony of multiple hopeful, encouraging query letters before just deciding to publish on my own is how little I care about making tons of money with this book. Yes, money is great,…
So I’m posting my first piece of flash fiction. What is flash fiction? It’s a very short piece of fiction, usually less than 1000 words that still contains the basics of a story. This is a piece I wrote awhile ago, inspired by a prompt in a writing magazine. I’ll post any flash fiction pieces…
I’ve always been a bit of a DIY person when it comes to creative tasks – if I can find a way to do it myself I will. But after a year and a half of letting my ready-to-publish manuscript sit on the digital shelf waiting for me to get around to formatting it, I’ve…
