Tag: writing
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Writer’s Block Because of Distraction
I currently cannot write. It has nothing to do with a lack of ideas, interesting characters, or twisting plot-lines in my head. I have plenty of those. I can’t write because I’m distracted, and this fact has actually taught me a few things about writing. First off, I’m distracted over drama. I write, direct, produce…
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Writing Stories that Teach and Make People Think
I love stories that teach. Not in a pedagogical sense, but stories that emit meaning, that make one think. Stories that teach us something about the human condition. Stories, for me, have to be about more than just entertainment. In our increasingly relativistic world, I have seen a general trend in storytelling – it has…
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RLT – The Little Group Near to My Heart
I’ve teaching, directing, and writing drama for a number of years now. I guess it’s been seven and a half years. I’ve learned so much – mostly that I don’t know much about acting or directing. (On the writing part I think I’m okay.) I get to work with young high school actors – some…
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Ways to write when you have no time to write.
Does this happen to you? You finally get some good, extended, quality time for writing, and you whip off thousands of words day after day in a frenzy of creativity only to have life slap you in the face and say, “Slow down. You have other things to do.” Grrrr. How true it is! Last…
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Chapter Titles or Chapter Numbers?
It was my wife that put me on to this one. One of her pet peeves is when authors only used numbers to differentiate between chapters. That is … Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, etc … As she says, it’s extremely boring and not very useful. She loves it when authors take the time…
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A monologue in a novel?
Do writers put monologues in novels? I’m sure they do. Or they have. My wife, who is a voracious reader, can’t remember any long monologues in the hundreds of books that she has read — at least not the type of monologue I’m talking about. I like monologues. They are great in plays – a…
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Thinking is Writing (aka: writing in a pool)
Thinking is writing. I’ve said this before, but the longer I’ve been a writer the truer it becomes. (Sometimes to the detriment to the people around me. I am not ignoring you on purpose.) A writer friend mentioned yesterday that I should do some writing without paper, pencil or device. I took the advice. I…
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Speed Writing. Speed Publishing. A Great Afternoon.
Besides being a writer, I’m a teacher. Sometimes those two facts collide. Like yesterday. It was at the beginning of the high school-wide parent-teacher conference when I was sitting at my desk minding my own business. A colleague, who is in charge of the forensics team, came to me with an urgent request: could I…
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Now what? Novel four in a waiting game.
This is an exciting time for any novelist – a second draft of my latest novel is complete and I am now sending it off to some trusted readers for feedback. Exciting, yet scary. No one else has even seen a word of this novel, and now about eight people will be receiving it, tasked…
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I’m sure my writing is uneven because my brain is uneven
Before bed last night, I clicked on Scrivener to read over a chapter from my new novel. I was tired and had few expectations for greatness as my blurry eyes started scanning down the page. And then the strangest thing happened, words flew randomly out of my head, and they made sense. Some even bordered…
Author Mark W Sasse 