Jessica McCann's Blog, page 10
July 7, 2014
Video Blog: Revising Your Novel
Photo by Kevin S. Moul Recently, I sat down with the folks at ASU's Piper Center for Creative Writing to talk about writing and revising, and the challenges and joys of writing historical fiction. Click links to view previous segments of the interview: Part 1 ~ Part 2 ~ Part...
June 25, 2014
Video Blog: Creating Authentic Voice When Writing Dialogue
Recently, I sat down with the folks at ASU's Piper Center for Creative Writing to talk about writing and revising, and the challenges and joys of writing historical fiction. Here is part 3 in a 4-part series from that interview. Question 3: How conscious are your choices regarding language and...
June 11, 2014
Video Blog: Layering Facts into Your Historical Fiction
Recently, I sat down with the folks at ASU's Piper Center for Creative Writing to talk about writing and revising, and the challenges and joys of writing historical fiction. Here is part 2 in a 4-part series from that interview. Question 2: What challenges are particular to writing historical fiction?...
May 28, 2014
Video Blog: Writing the Tough Scenes
Recently, I sat down with the folks at ASU's Piper Center for Creative Writing to talk about writing and revising, and the challenges and joys of writing historical fiction. Here is part 1 in a 4-part series from that interview. Question 1: In terms of technique, what is your most...
April 1, 2014
Writing at a Slow Simmer
Everyone's process for writing a novel is different. My process, I've learned, is like preparing a meal in slow-cooker. It takes a long time for the ideas to simmer before they become appetizing. I wrote about my writing process in a guest post at the ASU Piper Writers Studio blog....
March 11, 2014
Jessica McCann to Teach Online Historical Fiction Workshop
[Updated from 2/11/2013: Back by popular demand in 2014!] Arizona State University's Piper Center for Creative Writing offers classes open to the public for writers of all skill levels. Its line-up of Spring 2014 workshops includes a four-week online class taught by award-winning historical novelist Jessica McCann. Historians write about...
March 3, 2014
On Generosity, Gratitude and the Writing Community
Writers often lament how much competition there is in this business. They want to become published, yet they fear doing so will be like diving into a shark tank of rivals. They're looking at it all wrong. Being a writer is more like being adopted into a loving family that...
September 2, 2013
What Cupcakes Taught Me about Life and Literature
When I was in the fourth grade, a couple of the moms made several visits to our class to teach us "life skills." They addressed topics like how to make new friends, to be kind to others and so on. During one visit they announced the final week would include...
July 29, 2013
Charting a Writing Career Path
Blogger Karen Randau recently interviewed me about my professional writing path and my thoughts on publishing with a small press. She did a wonderful job of distilling our conversation into a helpful article for aspiring authors. I invite you to visit her blog to read the article, "Get Your Foot...
May 6, 2013
Making World Book Night Last All Year Long
There are few things I enjoy more than reading a good book and sharing it with others. World Book Night 2013 gave me the opportunity to take that to a whole new level. In a guest post at Read.Learn.Write blog, I share my first experience as a World Book Night...
