Category: Writing as a Craft
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Writer’s Shop Talk: How I Rescued Chapter 23 of My Novel
Late Morning, Friday, January 10, 2025, Miami, Florida “To write is human, to edit is divine.”― Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft For those following my novel-writing journey with Reunion: Coda, yesterday was more productive than Wednesday, although I did lose some productivity. As I mentioned in my previous post, I made…
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Writer’s Shop Talk: ‘Reunion: Coda’ Update – 22 Chapters Down…Only a Few More to Go!
Late Morning, Friday, December 20, 2024, Miami, Florida I’m pleased to report that yesterday’s afternoon writing session was delightfully productive, and Chapter 22 of Reunion: Coda is, pending my Beta Reader’s seal of approval, officially complete. It’s a rather succinct chapter, perhaps one of the shortest in the novel, clocking in at a mere three…
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Writer’s Shop Talk: An Update on ‘Reunion: Coda’
Midday/Early Afternoon, Tuesday, December 17, 2024, Miami, Florida It’s almost unimaginable – at least to me – that I’ve been crafting my debut novel, Reunion: Coda, for nearly two years. I embarked on this literary journey in the second week of March 2023, initially dubbing it “The New Story.” Now, it’s the week before Christmas…
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Writer’s Shop Talk: Adapting a ‘Jim and Marty’ Scene from Page to Screen
Adapting stories from one medium to another is a tricky proposition, especially when you choose to make a movie or TV “limited series” based on a beloved book, novella, or short story. Even when a film adaptation, like The Hunt for Red October, hits it big at the box office, you’ll often hear, “Yeah, but…
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Writer’s Shop Talk: From Page to Screen – Prologue to ‘Reunion: Coda’ Adapted as Screenplay
I am a writer. I don’t remember the exact age when I decided to write stories and make a living from it. It was probably around 12, but I became serious in the fall of 1977 after watching Star Wars for the first time. The realization that movies start as screenplays and seeing “written and…
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Finding Creativity When Under the Weather
Midday/Early Afternoon, Friday, December 6, 2024, Miami, Florida Hey there, Constant Readers! It’s a balmy early winter day here in sunny South Florida. The temperature is a delightful 78°F (25°C) under those clear blue skies, making it a perfect day for sipping iced tea and pretending it’s still summer. Meanwhile, in Madison, NH, it’s a…
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Writer’s Shop Talk: Exciting Developments in ‘Reunion: Coda’ – Chapter 21
Midday/Early Afternoon, Thursday, December 5, 2024, Miami, Florida Hello, Constant Readers! I’m thrilled to announce that yesterday afternoon’s writing session was unexpectedly successful. After two hours of brainstorming – and, admittedly, worrying that I wasn’t making any progress – filled with drafting, editing, and revising, I completed the 21st chapter of Reunion: Coda. This chapter’s…
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Writer’s Shop Talk: My Productive Writer’s Monday
Seamlessly Weaving Fiction: A Day of Creative Triumphs Late Morning, Tuesday, December 3, 2024, Miami, Florida Yesterday was a fantastic day for writing. Not only did I manage to craft my daily blog post – an after-action report of a session of Sea Power: Naval Combat in the Missile Age, written in the style of…
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Writer’s Shop Talk: Maddie Fends Off a Matchmaker! (Writing Exercise)
Writing As a Craft: Keeping Secrets? Author’s Note: This passage is based on one of the many writing exercises from the book How to Write a Romance: Or, How to Write Witty Dialogue, Smoldering Love Scenes, and Happily Ever Afters. In this exercise, I wrote in the third person to practice creating engaging dialogue and…
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Writer’s Shop Talk: Editing and Revising = Productive Workday
Midday, Wednesday, November 27, 2024, Miami, Florida Hello, Constant Readers. Yesterday was a slow day on the writing front. I had hoped to start writing Scene 3 for Chapter 21, but the Well of Ideas was a bit dry, and I ended up editing some of the older sections of the novel instead. I would…
A Certain Point of View, Too 