Fire season is the time to check your emergency supplies. As well as having a plan for your family (medicine, food and water, and power cords just in case you find some place with electricity), make sure you have an emergency plan for your writing. Do you have backups of your work-in-progress? Are your notes …
I read a cultural history of Saint Petersburg, Russia, that reminded me of how much place influences character. Almost all of my favorite composers, from the 1800s well into the 20th century, were born and/or trained in Saint Petersburg. I was amazed at how many of the 20th century musicians either stayed or returned despite …
Place, History and Character Development by Lani Longshore Read More »
I write science fiction, so I’m always looking for ways to improve my world-building skills. Sometimes I find my best examples in the news. Consider this item from an article in Foreign Affairs: “Since the beginning of written history, Chinese society has relied on extended kinship networks to cope with economic risks. Yet a rising …
I used to teach a quilting workshop with my co-author Ann Anastasio called “There’s a Quilt In There Somewhere.” We had our students bring fabric they loved but couldn’t use to the class, and everyone would get a chance to offer suggestions on patterns, other fabrics to include, and embellishments. I mentioned this to a …
There’s A Story in There Somewhere by Lani Longshore Read More »
Plot is what happens—first this, then that, then the other thing. What if we asked a different question at the beginning of our plot outlines? Try saying, “I was there and this happened to me.” Now we are focused on cause and effect rather than only the events. We’ve established that someone will be adapting …
Plotting with a Different Question by Lani Longshore Read More »
Arushi Avachat has self-published a new book, When Love Dies & Other Stories. Her book launch was at Inklings in Pleasanton on April 27. Several of Arushi’s short stories are award winners in contests for teens.
Barbara Flores‘ memoir, Separated Acting Badly: For the Love of Food, A Man, and Me, is now available on Amazon (Kindle and paperback). Barbara’s funny, and ultimately family-affirming book chronicles the transition from marriage to divorce, and what she learned from herself and her well-meaning friends. Alice Kight‘s poem “Beloved Eyewitness” won first place in …
My husband recently acquired permission to submit articles to Wikipedia. To be able to do this, you have to work your way through Wikipedia’s vetting process (click here to get started), which includes learning to make edits to existing articles. One straightforward and useful way to make edits is to add footnotes to articles where …
Just when I thought my biggest writing issue was making time to sit at the keyboard, I discovered a whole new problem. My latest novel is spiraling out of control so I decided to rework the outline. Mind you, this is the first novel I’ve tried to outline. I allowed the others to wander because …
I attended a workshop dedicated to crafting sentences. We began with a discussion of sentence forms—simple, complex, compound, and complex-compound. Most instructors I’ve heard in the last ten years have focused on the simple sentence as the best solution to all writing problems. This class was led by a woman who rejected the idea of …
The Return of the Participial Phrase by Lani Longshore Read More »
