Terry Shames's Blog: 7 Criminal Minds, page 35

Page Turners

 Q: Have there been recent novels which had you laughing, crying, clinging to the edge of your seat?

 

-       from Susan

 

I love books and I do respond to good writing, but rarely as dramatically as the question suggests! But, yes, several come to mind, first of which has to be THE HEAVEN & EARTH GROCERY STORE, by James McBride. So, we all – that is the reading public – already know what a great, gifted storyteller McBride is, and his newest is a polished, breathtakingly good tale. It prompts all ...

Quality - How do you know when you've got it right? By Harini Nagendra

The question of the week is a tricky but all-important crafts question - how do you know when you've got it right?

I'll confess, right from the start, that I haven't the foggiest idea. Especially not with my fiction writing yet, where I feel like I'm still at the steep end of the learning curve.

It's different with my science writing. I've been writing non-fiction for popular audiences, mostly on issues of ecology and sustainability, for close to 30 years. Over time, I have built up a reasonable c...

Five Strained Metaphors for Getting It Right from James W. Ziskin

How do you know when you’ve got it right?
As with everything else in my life, I don’t. I never know if I’ve got it right. 
Metaphor N. 1Your book is a recipe. Well, actually, it isn’t. But for the sake of this metaphor let’s say it is. You measure out the ingredients, prepare them with care, and, if you follow the directions to the letter, you can be reasonably certain the result will be great.
“If only I can avoid burning it, everything will turn out fine…”
Me writing a novel…
The only problem is I ...

That Aha! moment

How do you know when you’ve got it right?

by Dietrich

Like many of us, I’ve never had trouble coming up with stories, and I usually have the next idea in my head before the story I’m working on is complete. At the beginning, I had these stories to tell, but I had to find the best way to get them out and onto paper. At that point, there was a lot of experimenting and second guessing. I would write a scene, and I’d look at it with fresh eyes the next morning — and wonder what I’d been thinking. A...

Keep On Keeping On

 

Terry here with our weekly question: How do you continue to write prolifically, even when life occasionally kicks you in the pants? 
 I wish I could say I had a magic button to push that keeps me writing even in difficult times, but in the absence of a such a device, continuing to write boils down to plain old perseverance. And having a writing project that must be completed actually helps when things are rough because when I sit down to write, the real world falls away and the world I’m constru...

Getting it Right

How do you know when you’ve got it right?  

Brenda starting off the week

This is a subjective question because my 'right' might not be the same as yours. Have you ever read a passage and thought, if it were me, I'd change this word, or I never would have written it that way ... Yet the author who penned the words believed they'd nailed it -- or did they?

Authors generally edit their manuscripts right up to the last second, and often lament not being able to make changes afterwards. For my part, I ke...

Captain Chucklefuck, Creative Insults And Other Inspirations, by Josh Stallings

 

Q: What inspires you in your day-to-day life, something that influences your writing?

A: Inspiration comes in so many forms. Reading great writers inspires me to write. Some times. Other times it can bring on crippling self doubt. Before I had completed a novel, I read James Lee Burke’s Neon Rain, it was terrifyingly good. Two more of his Dave Robicheaux books convinced me to give up attempting to write. Then I decided to read everything Burke had written in order. His early books were good, but...

Plans are plots and plots are plans, by Catriona

 What inspires you in yourday-to-day life, something that influences your writing?

What a great question. (Isn't it strange how we employ the same true-but-handy ways to gain thinking time even when we're composing a written answer?)

Intrigued? Keep reading

If I chose to deliberately misunderstand the question, my answer would be: the great outdoors. Whether I'm walking, cycling, gardening, sitting on a rock staring into space, or lying on a beach staring at the sky, I do all my best day-dreaming ...

Inspired by life by Eric Beetner

What inspires you in your day-to-day life, something that influences your writing? 

Honestly, I wish I knew. Inspiration is a funny thing to me. I find myself thinking of stories or characters quite a lot. Too much, maybe. I was that kid in class labeled a “Daydreamer”. I see someone on the street and I want to know their story. I hear something innocuous about a neighbor and I want the anecdote to keep going, to spin out to unexpected places. I can’t honestly say there is a thing that doesn’t in...

Nothing New Under the Sun by Gabriel Valjan

 

What inspires you in yourday-to-day life, something that influences your writing?

 

Let’s be honest, if you’re well-read across time and world cultures,you will realize that nothing is new under the sun.

 

Nihil novi sub sole.The Hero’s Journey. The Stranger Comes to Town. All the plots have beenuncovered and analyzed. Consult Ronald B. Tobias’ 20 Master Plots as a resource.

 

What writers do to renew the soil is bring their uniqueexperiences, their particular sty...