THIS IS THE MOMENT WHEN, in your story world, everything has changed. The stranger has come to town, the father has died, the mother has left, the best friend has announced that she’s moving to Pakistan. Like In Media Res, in which you begin in the middle of the action, this technique relies on triggering…
Daydreaming Your Novel
A PARENT IN MY child’s school recently forwarded me an 11-minute video about skills we’ll need for the 21st century. What really stuck with me was the bit about creativity: “Most creative thoughts happen when your mind is left to wander: daydreaming; doing the dishes; exercising.” This rang true for me. My last novel, Thieving Forest, had…
Thieving Forest Anniversary Giveaway
TODAY IS THE ONE-YEAR anniversary of the book launch for my novel, Thieving Forest. Although I can’t remember when I began, exactly, to think about this novel — when I started outlining the plot, or even before that, when several ideas suddenly converged into something that might, one day, resemble a plot — I think it…