Elizabeth Spann Craig's Blog, page 247

Pre-Writing-Tart Style—by Hart Johnson

Today, I'm welcoming Hart Johnson to the blog. Hart is currently working on the third book of her Conspiracy trilogy and blogs at Confessions of a Watery Tart on writing, digressions, and her road to publication.

For those of you who don't know me, I go by the Watery Tart in several areas of my life, and it's true that I have trouble behaving myself, so why should my writing plans be any different? A few weeks ago when Elizabeth asked for volunteers to guest blog, though, I thought.....

Thoughts on Blogging

Blogging is one of my favorite activities. Whether I'm reading blogs or writing them, or tweeting about them, I feel like I'm learning an incredible amount from the process.

I blogged daily from last May until late January (when I started opening up the blog to guest posts). So now I'm blogging on average about 6 days a week.

The good thing about blogging daily, if you can swing it, is:

It's a good writing exercise.
It's a great way to establish a writing discipline.
It's excellent ...

What's Unique about the Writer's Lens

I've noticed that many people I know view life through a lens.

Some of them use a political lens—they look at everything in relation to politics.

Many use religious lenses.

There are some that use a financial lens: everything boils down in terms of money.

There are egocentric lenses…how everything in life affects them.

There's even a motherhood lens—how life's hardships and joys affect their children or the raising of them.

The big thing that seems to set writers apart, to me, is...

What's Scary

My now eight year old daughter was in preschool for a couple of days a week to give me a break—and some time to do some writing. This always seemed to work out well for both of us.

Except when she was two. That's when separation anxiety kicked into high gear. Her poor teacher that year was a sunny, small, smiling, blonde mother of two. Mrs. Heinz would greet my daughter in a cheerful voice. My daughter would scream bloody murder and cling to me in a way that necessitated her being pulled ...

Reactions

Sunday morning I woke up with a stiff neck. Since Sunday was really busy for me, I just ignored it. I continued ignoring it the entire day…until I sat down to write this post and started thinking about it again.

But what if I weren't a busy mom? What if I were an Olympic athlete? I'd be devoting some time trying to resolve the problem. Maybe I'd take some ibuprofen (or maybe not—not sure about the drug testing there.) Maybe I'd put ice, then a heating pad on it. I'd be talking to my...

Indicators

I took a quick trip to South Carolina Friday and Saturday to see my folks and talk to Mama's book club.

On the way back home Saturday morning, I suddenly realized I needed to get gasoline…and was hungry. I pulled off the next highway exit into a small town that I'd passed on the interstate for years and never been to.

The highway sign had been misleading—yes, there was a Chick-fil-A fast food place there…three miles in. So I ended up driving through a good amount of the town's main...

Developing Our Story

Okay, y'all know I don't usually post a video. But this one, if you're a writer, will put a smile on your face if you have the time (1:58 length) :

The video features an editor trying to get a writer to change his manuscript—and coming up with confusing and bizarre storylines for the author to develop. The hapless writer is trying to make connections between his plot and the outlandish ideas the editor is dreaming up.

I've never had an editor act this way, of course—they're always...

On Revising

Today I'd like to welcome Bob Sanchez to the blog. Bob, a retired technical writer, has published two novels, When Pigs Fly and Getting Lucky. His blog is http://bobsanchez1.blogspot.com and is the webmaster and frequent reviewer for the Internet Review of Books at http://internetreviewofbooks.com.

Elizabeth asked me for a post on revising—not necessarily how to do it, but how I do it. Writing and revising aren't separate processes, but are closely bound together. Revising is writing...

Characters and Conflict

My third grade daughter brought a children's chapter book home from her school library a week ago. The book was about a fifth grader who decides that grades and standardized tests aren't accurate assessments of children's abilities and can make students feel stigmatized. The girl decides to make straight Ds on her report card.

I know…my eyebrows went up, too. :)

But she'd picked the book out herself, was excited about the novel, and was reading it carefully to take (ironically) a...

Making the Ordinary Extraordinary

My husband's sister and her husband live in Africa where they work as translators. My sister-in-law speaks French fluently and perfectly accented. Her husband speaks 5 or 6 languages, including Swahili.

For years they lived in Nairobi, Kenya. Life there; apart from election violence over a year ago, living in a guarded housing compound, and occasional run-ins with police (who aren't like our police); was pretty tame compared to life in their current home in Bunia, Congo. Congo hasn't...