DeAnna Knippling's Blog, page 35

Think Like a Librarian – The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, by Muriel Spark

I’m trying to look at books the way a librarian might, in order to help get me better at thinking from a reader’s point of view.  Here are the other posts in the series. …                   The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is a short novel set in the period […]

How to Study Fiction, Part 7: Reading, Part 1

This is part of a series on how to study fiction, mainly directed at writers who have read all the beginning writing books and are like, “What now?!?”  The rest of the series is here. … What to read, how to read, and how to start studying it.  Every professional writer seems to have the […]

The Story Game

Here’s a game I came up with.  Asking one person is interesting enough, but asking at least five is essential to the point of the game. … It’s a dark and stormy night and you’re on a road going somewhere that you don’t want to go, but have to be. How are you traveling? Where […]

Stephen King’s Grocery List

There’s this saying that Stephen King is such a good writer that he could write a grocery list and have it be entertaining. I took a brief look to see if he had written such a story, but couldn’t find one. Nevertheless, this should be a Thing, at the very least, an official thought experiment that […]

Pikes Peak Writers’ Conference 2018 Wrap-Up

Books I was recommended: Sea of Poppies, by Amitav Ghosh The Silence, by Tim Lebbon The Well-Fed Writer, by Peter Bowerman This list is shorter than I like, but I do have permission to ask Jonathan Maberry for some good action/horror titles. Book to Study: The Big Sleep, by Raymond Chandler, as per Laura Hayden’s mystery […]

How to Dress a Writer

Still scrambling and running behind, but the end is in sight… … Okay.  If you have a fashion sense or do costuming, ignore this.  This is not for you. You’re a writer, and you’re going to a writer function.  How do you dress?  It seems like some writers have this down, in a way that […]

Think Like A Librarian – Her Body and Other Parties, by Carmen Maria Machado

I’m trying to look at books the way a librarian might, in order to help get me better at thinking from a reader’s point of view.  Here are the other posts in the series. … Her Body and Other Parties is a collection of short stories that centers around the horrific in a kind of fairy-tale way.  […]

What Makes Horror Worth Reading?

I lost a major client (his sales died before the first of my books for him came out waaaaaaaaaaahhhh!!!!) and am slammed with other things at the moment, so I’m probably going to be a bit spotty until May. But I had to get this off my chest. … I have been struggling with the […]

How to Study Fiction, Part 6: Words of Wisdom

This is part of a series on how to study fiction, mainly directed at writers who have read all the beginning writing books and are like, “What now?!?”  The rest of the series is here. … I’d like to take a moment to interject something that came up in the middle of writing these posts. […]

How to Study Fiction, Part 5: Productivity and Speed, Part 3

This is part of a series on how to study fiction, mainly directed at writers who have read all the beginning writing books and are like, “What now?!?”  The rest of the series is here. … Resources related to productivity/speed issues:  Look for good general productivity, happiness, and habit-changing books and websites, like The Seven Habits […]