I work with many first-time novelists, screenwriters, and memoirists, and the question of voice always comes up. “Do you think I have a voice?” asks the first-time writer. “Should it be in a …
Trusting the Unconscious
If you’re a first-time writer, and you’ve yet to complete a manuscript, you may have had the experience of writing something, and getting stuck halfway through. Our idea of our story is rarely the …
The Real Meaning of “Write What You Know”
Write what you know. We’ve heard this so often. What does it mean? Does it mean that if I am a mechanic I should only write about mechanics? Or if I am a woman I can only write about women? No, of …
The Purpose of the Outline
Whether consciously or not, every writer is in search of a process. The outline is an often misunderstood element in the creative process. Some writers eschew it completely, considering it to limit …
Discovering Your Writing Process
As we write each day we discover our own process. We begin to see there is no “right way” to create and that our objective is simply to let the story live. The first draft is a near constant state of …
Writing Prose
“Prose is architecture, not interior design.” – Ernest Hemingway Our words are in service to our story. When we get too flashy with our adjectives, we may distract and even confuse our reader in …
Is It Any Good?
There can be a real desire, especially for the novice writer, to have someone validate our work as soon as possible, even to tell us if we are, in fact, a writer. I have a friend, a successful …
The Lens Through Which You See Your Story
“I find that when I am working I become like an antenna, and suddenly everything relates to my screenplay: a mentioned recipe, a joke somebody tells, a billboard that I see. It all becomes grist for …
Ignorance is Bliss
I wrote the first draft of my first novel in just under 90 days. I'd been writing stand-up and screenplays for years, but very little prose. I had a strong sense of story, and a pretty clear …
Your Truest Self
As you write each day, you discover your own process. You begin to see there is no “right way” to create and that your objective is simply to let the story live. The first draft is a near constant …