Terry Shames's Blog: 7 Criminal Minds, page 104

Reading Impact

Which book that you’ve read has had the most profound effect on you? And why?

From Frank
I groaned when I read this question. Not because it isn't a good question - it's a great one, in fact. No, my reaction was simply because it is an impossible question to answer. 
How can I choose just one?
It's time like these that I almost wish I was a religious fundamentalist. I could point to the guiding religious tome of my faith, snap my fingers, and be pressing PUBLISH on this post at 75 words in. But I do...

A Book, a Book, My Kingdom for a Book!

 Q: Which book that you’ve read has had the most profound effect on you? And why? 

 

-from Susan

 

When I was 7 or 8, it was E.B.White’s magnificent Stuart Little. I lived in Manhattan, I knew the lake where boys and girls sailed miniature sailboats, this was my home! And if the storytelling hadn’t done it, the exquisite pen and ink drawings would have. That little canoe…It made me a lover of great character stories for the rest of my life.

 

At 10, I went through what seems to be a quintessential gir...

Exit, Pursued by a Bare?

 by Abir

Laptop, desktop, Underwood or pencil: what works best for you? How has the way you write (and submit stories) evolved since you started?

 

Morning all. Friday again, eh? I didn’t get much sleep last night, so today’s piece might not be up to the usual Pulitzer-worthy standards you've come to expect from this blog, but I’d ask you to bear with me - or bare with me – I can’t remember which is correct cos my head’s a bit foggy this morning.

 

You might be asking, 

‘Why Mukhers? Why didn’t you ge...

Tools of the Trade from James W. Ziskin

Laptop, desktop, Underwood or pencil: what works best for you? How has the way you write (and submit stories) evolved since you started?

This reminds me of a question from two years ago, so the first part of my answer might sound familiar. 

I do all my writing on my iPad. It’s lightweight and versatile, and I take it everywhere I go. That allows me to write at the library (pre-pandemic) when I’m in the mood for a change of scenery. Or sometimes I go to the lake in my car, though the wildlife can b...

Think it up, write it down

Image by Hans Genthe

Laptop, desktop, Underwood or pencil: what works best for you? How has the way you write (and submit stories) evolved since you started?

by Dietrich

The first time I wrote anything novel length I used a pen on lined paper. A lot of stroked out words and balled up pages later, I had a first draft which I kept in a box. I was in my mid-teens and a pen and paper were the only means I had of getting the story down. I learned to type in high school and some years later, I cranked ou...

Stone Tablets, Anyone?

 

Terry Shames here, answering the question: Laptop, desktop, Underwood or pencil: what works best for you? How has the way you write (and submit stories) evolved since you started? 
 Stone tablets were so hard to write on. 

Either the stone was too hard to chip into, or it shattered too easily. Then there was papyrus—don’t get me started. It was always too damp or too dry to scratch onto. And it was liable to crumble before anyone could read it. The pencil and paper were a huge breakthrough. And ...

A Writer's Tools

Laptop, desktop, Underwood or pencil: what works best for you? How has the way you write (and submit stories) evolved since you started?

Brenda Chapman at the keyboard.
Way, way back when I first started writing poetry and short stories, I used paper and pen or pencil. I still have my handwritten notebook full of poems composed in university when I was studying English lit and taking a creative writing course as one of my electives. Those were the days before computers (I can hear the Millennials'...

Kill the Backstory. By Josh Stallings

Q: How do you deal with backstory? How much do you need, and where do you put it? How do you know what to leave in, and what to take out?

I just finished reading Heather Levy’s debut novel, Walking Through Needles, it takes place in 1994 and 2009 from the point of view of two teenagers and later, adults. It is a hard book handled brilliantly. By jumping time frames she makes backstory feel immediate. It made me think, backstory must drive the story or be dropped. 

I’m editing my newest book and I ...

Backstory Guestblog, with Liz Milliron

C raft:  How do you deal with backstory? How much do you need, and where do you put it? How do you know what to leave in, and what to take out?

Catriona writes: Ask me how tough it was to have a guest this week and so miss the chance to answer this question myself? Zero tough. My answer was "Oh Lord, I dunno". Now ask how tough it was to be welcoming Liz Milliron back to Criminal Acres? Negative tough. Runny honey. Raw meringue. 

Liz is a writer of  two very distinct series with the same gritty sens...

Over-egged, or underdone? by Cathy Ace

C raft:  How do you deal with backstory? How much do you need, and where do you put it? How do you know what to leave in, and what to take out?

Backstory: I LOVE BACKSTORY!!!! There, that’s got that out of my system.

Anyone who habitually reads 7 Criminal Minds will have sussed out that I use it as a bit of a confessional. If not, you might not know that I’m a slightly OCD plotter – taking my plotting notes to a degree where I understand many other writers wouldn’t end up writing the book itself ...