Category: Writing Process
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Mixing real historical figures into a work of fiction. Vietnam 1945.
My untitled third novel that I’m currently working on is set during two different time periods in Vietnam. The first is 2000 and the second is 1945. Nineteen-forty-five is the crucial year in modern day Vietnam. It’s the year that the Japanese completely overthrew the remnants of the French Empire in Indochina. It’s the year…
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Re-thinking the way I write
After lamenting in the blog the loss of over a 1000 words earlier this week, I finally went at it to recreate once again what I had already created once. Well, the effort has well paid off. I buzzed pass the threshold easily in such a way that I wonder if I should always throw…
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I Lost 1000 Words
It wasn’t anyone’s fault. Not even my own. Through getting a new computer and working through some syncing issues, etc … I lost 1000 words of novel three which I wrote yesterday afternoon. I’m not sure what I think or feel about this reality. I wasn’t particularly fond of what I had written, but I…
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Nothing as Bleak as a Writer’s Confidence
I just finished a short 1500 word dramatic sketch entitled “‘No’ in Spite of Itself”. Now I can’t seem to shake those mixed feelings I have about it. For a while, I had my doubts how effective it was going to be. It’s about a man, standing on the edge of a cliff, having a…
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The Artist’s Eye – I Don’t Have It
I was working with my artist yesterday (it sounds like I have my personal, resident artist! Well, maybe I do!) on the final layout and design for my next novel, The Recluse Storyteller. And can I just say, I hate fonts. They all look the same to me. I’ve already made font mistakes in my…
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The Two Lives of a Book
When writing a novel, I get so caught up in my characters and the plot-line, that it takes on a life of its own. It becomes a little part of me, a part that I cherish and grow to like and mold day by day as I write. Part of what I love is the…
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Writing Comedy: From Page to Rehearsal to Stage
I had the extreme pleasure of watching my new play (co-written with a team of student writers), Grandparents’ War, at its debut the other night. Once the audience shows up and the lights go down, everything changes, and a writer finally gets to see (and hear) if the words he has written resonate off the…
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Discipline + Imagination + Bravery = ?
Here’s another connection between acting and writing. I found this equation in one of my drama books: Discipline + Imagination + Bravery = Success! I couldn’t have said it better for either acting or writing. Let’s break this down a little bit: DISCIPLINE An actor has to be disciplined in putting in the homework to…
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Writer’s block or not?
This ARTICLE got me thinking a little bit about what writer’s block actually is. To me, writer’s block is just a matter of semantics. What one person calls ‘writer’s block’, I call just needing some time to let it sort itself out. About two years ago I started writing a short play entitled “Jerome the Cruel and…
Author Mark W Sasse 