Terry Shames's Blog: 7 Criminal Minds, page 78

What if I don’t know anything?

by Dietrich

How has your life shaped your writing? 

Life experiences come into play in one way or another and affect my writing. Emotions, senses and imagination all get called on. 

The thing is, if I only wrote about places I’ve actually been and experiences I’ve had, I’d feel hedged in and limited, and I probably wouldn’t have much to say. The mistake is thinking that ‘write what you know’ means to only write about events and places I’ve actually experienced. Of course, common sense would tell an...

Write Who You Know

 

Terry here, My topic this week: Write what you know. How has your life shaped your writing? And how has your writing shaped your life? 
 \My mother-in-law had a cartoon at her desk that I got a kick out of. The caption read, “It’s not what you know; it’s who you know. And who do I know? I know YOU.” 
 How does that relate to the topic? I don’t necessarily write what I know, I write who I know. I know the characters who inhabit the books I write. I “know” them as if I had met them—which, in a wa...

Art Imitating Life?

Write what you know. How has your life shaped your writing? And how has your writing shaped your life?

Brenda starting off the week.

Aside from the murdering nasties in my books, there probably isn't much of my writing that hasn't been shaped by my life. Books I've read, the news, conversations, places I've been, experiences, good and bad ... even looking after my daughters' dogs on occasion, all somehow creep into my stories.

George Trooper

I grew up in Terrace Bay, a small, isolated town of 2000 pe...

Am I A Writer, Past or Present Tense? By Josh Stallings

 Q: Do you love writing or having written? Is the process enjoyable or a necessary chore to get to where you want to be?

A man of many hats.

A: As a kid I wanted to be an outlaw. My pop and I wore diapers for bandanas and robbed imaginary trains. When I was seven I saw a film called Dear Brigitte where 10 year old Billy Mumy falls in love with the movie star Brigitte Bardot (played by Bardot herself) and writes her love letters. Mumy was a freckled redheaded kid near my age. Watching it I fell in ...

Thunder and lightning. Enter three witches, by Catriona

 Do you use weather in your books to create atmosphere or mood? Talk to us about meteorology.

Elmore Leonard famously (in these circles) offered "Never open with the weather" as number one of ten good-writing rules. But if I've got to choose between Elmore Leonard and Shakespeare, it's going to be Stratford Willie all the way.
I've published thirty-one novels and I was pretty sure I must have opened with the weather in quite a few of them. Because I most certainly do use it to signify mood, atmosp...

Of endings, and beginnings... by Cathy Ace

Birthday lunch in Wales with my mum and sister,
at one of my/our favourite spots:
Bracelet Bay, MumblesIt’s the last day of August: September looms, with thoughts of mellow fruitfulness, the whiff of wood smoke in the cooling air, and the promise of a new academic year. I loved the start of the school year because it meant opening a new exercise book, with its unblemished pillowy pages just waiting to be written upon…all that potential…a wonderful time.

This year? I’m just back from a three-week...

Thunder and lightning. Enter three Witches, by Catriona

 Do you use weather in your books to create atmosphere or mood? Talk to us about meteorology.

Elmore Leonard famously (in these circles) offered "Never open with the weather" as number one of ten good-writing rules. But if I've got to choose between Elmore Leonard and Shakespeare, it's going to be Stratford Willie all the way.
I've published thirty-one novels and I was pretty sure I must have opened with the weather in quite a few of them. Because I most certainly do use it to signify mood, atmosp...

The Case of the Accidental Writer by Gabriel Valjan

  I call myself an accidental writer because I’m not one of those authors who wrote their first novel with crayons. Personal circumstances forced my fingers to tickle the keyboard. There were signs, though, that I was destined for a love affair with words. Elements were there. As an only child, I read books to combat loneliness. I read above my age group. I excelled at what was then called—in the Seventies—Language Arts. A teacher infected me with the addiction to mysteries when she supplied me ...

"Hold the front page!"

Q:  Tell us about your revision process. Tools, processes, checks, beta readers, schedules, and anything else that helps you polish your work.

 

-from Susan

 

Tomorrow, I hit send and off goes the revised manuscript for MURDER VISITS A FRENCH VILLAGE to the editor who gave me notes on the first version that have made this one better. I admit to the jitters. So, how does this process work for me?

 

Tools: Here, I’m weak, but with encouragement from friends like fellow Minds author Jim Ziskin, I am about...

Guest Author - Vaseem Khan

This Friday, we're joined by my friend and guest author, Vaseem Khan, author of the Persis Wadia series of historical crime fiction novels set in 1950s India. His latest, The Lost Man of Bombay, is out this month.

Do you draw inspiration from rejection or encouragement? Who is your biggest champion? In order to improve, do we need cheerleaders? Or doubters?

 

I have a friend who has made it his life’s mission to post inspiring WhatsApp posts every morning to our group of about 60. “Belief is the li...