Ask the Author: Ron McGaw
Answered Questions (4)
Ron McGaw
Use concrete rather than conceptual words and images. That is, don't have your characters or the narrator fondly remembering "home." Rather, have the character recall the smell of freshly cut grass, the feel of the sun on her skin, the look of the cracked walkway up to the door, the sound of the tinkling porch chimes, and the taste of her mother's pumpkin pie. Ernest Hemingway said it best when he said something like, "The writer should describe the elements of the emotion."
Ron McGaw
I have no idea what makes other people write. For me, writing is a necessary part of who I am. When life gets busy and I'm not able to write consistently (hey, I live in the real world, right?), I feel very unsettled. But when I am writing consistently, I feel content knowing that I am accomplishing something I care about.
Ron McGaw
I've never found writer's block to be a real issue. What does happen, though, is writer's avalanche. That is, there often comes a point, usually about 150 pages into a project, where I know what I want to say and where the story is going, but the ideas are bouncing around and are unorganized. The cure for this is to find a week without distractions (taking a 7 day cruise works very nicely) to sit and work through the outline of the story, reorganize the story elements, and work out a plan for how to finish the book.
Ron McGaw
Thirty years ago, standing in the Medici Palace in Florence, a tour guide explained to our group that the great artist Michelangelo and the amazing genius Leonardo da Vinci both had lived and worked in Florence at the same time. I hadn't realized this fact, and I immediately began to wonder whether they had been rivals. And if rivals, had they ever faced off in any kind of competition, and what was the outcome? "Oh no," the guide assured me. "They were good friends." But there was a hesitation in
his voice. I could tell he really didn’t know, so I decided to find out for myself. This encounter, and that trip, created in me a lifelong fascination with the Italian Renaissance and the towering figures who lived and worked together in Florence during that time. Florence in the late 15th
Century was a place of great violence and intrigue, but it was also a city of great genius – Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Machiavelli, Donatello, Brunelleschi, Michelangelo all lived there. The question is, how did this ex
plosion of talent and intellect occur at this one place and time in the world? Why did the people of Florence excel in the arts, science,
political theory, architecture, medicine and philosophy far beyond what random chance would suggest is possible? Frankly, the notion still strikes me as fantastic, and it formed the basis of the book I had to write. Lorenzo's Daggers transports the reader back to Renaissance Florence, where our protagonist, Prester John, meets many of the characters – famous and infamous – from that period. I hope, first, that this book is entertaining, but I hope too that it inspires in the reader the same sense of awe that struck me so many years ago, and still fills me with the wonder of it all.
his voice. I could tell he really didn’t know, so I decided to find out for myself. This encounter, and that trip, created in me a lifelong fascination with the Italian Renaissance and the towering figures who lived and worked together in Florence during that time. Florence in the late 15th
Century was a place of great violence and intrigue, but it was also a city of great genius – Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Machiavelli, Donatello, Brunelleschi, Michelangelo all lived there. The question is, how did this ex
plosion of talent and intellect occur at this one place and time in the world? Why did the people of Florence excel in the arts, science,
political theory, architecture, medicine and philosophy far beyond what random chance would suggest is possible? Frankly, the notion still strikes me as fantastic, and it formed the basis of the book I had to write. Lorenzo's Daggers transports the reader back to Renaissance Florence, where our protagonist, Prester John, meets many of the characters – famous and infamous – from that period. I hope, first, that this book is entertaining, but I hope too that it inspires in the reader the same sense of awe that struck me so many years ago, and still fills me with the wonder of it all.
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