Here”s a bit of advice from Robert Louis Stevenson, in writing about the genesis of Treasure Island (from his 1905 short work Essays in the Art of Writing). He speaks to the imaginative power of starting by making a map! The story begins in 1881 in the Scottish Highlands, during a rainy spell spent confined… [Read more…]
September 5, 2009
When I wrote my previous post to this blog on a whimsical piece by James Boswell and Samuel Johnson, I mentioned it made me remember a similar piece overflowing in a sense of place. Here ’tis. It’s by a North Dakota writer, Linda Hasselstrom, who writes and runs a writer’s retreat at her home, Windbreak… [Read more…]
August 29, 2009
Last week I did a pleasant book-signing at Boswell Book Co. (for A Guide to Fantasy Literature; my thanks to Daniel Goldin, proprietor, and Jason, for hosting!). Boswell Books is a Milwaukee indie bookstore, named for James Boswell (1740–95), a literary Scottish laird, described by one biographer as a complicated fellow, with “his rippling good… [Read more…]
July 21, 2009
To learn to see and write better, there are great books to inspire you. One of the finest, an exquisite book of nature writing, is Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (1974), winner of a Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction, an account of a year spend looking closely at the world centered around a creek in… [Read more…]
April 30, 2009
I love sense of place! As a strong advocate of sense of place, in literature and real life, I recommend stories well rooted in a specific site or region . . . it will make your stories more compelling. However, I find this a bit disturbing: “Project Bookmark Canada Puts Stories in Our Spaces” On… [Read more…]
November 22, 2008
There are several things that drive a novel’s fictional story from the first pages. Think of a story as a kind of journey, something with forward motion. If you think of the metaphor of an automobile, the plot of a story might be considered the engine, the motive power. But something is needed to propel… [Read more…]
February 18, 2008
In my quest to convince emerging writers that a compelling opening for a novel can be an intriguing description of place . . . here’s the start of a 2004 fantasy for young readers, a book I’m currently enjoying, The Sea of Trolls, by Nancy Farmer, 3-time winner of a Newbery Honor award. Jack woke… [Read more…]
February 15, 2008
“There are only two or three human stories, and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely as if they had never happened before.” — Willa Cather I was talking informally with a writer the other day at a book signing I was doing, and she told me she was writing a novel. Tell me about… [Read more…]
The Writer's Handbook
June 26, 2010
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