Terry Shames's Blog: 7 Criminal Minds, page 83

Fighting the foibles

If you could easily change one writing habit, what would it be? Starting earlier (or later) in the day? Become a plotter or pantser? Rush through a first draft or edit as you go? 

by Dietrich

Since I started writing, I’ve been aware of some good writing habits and some bad ones too, and I’ve spent years adapting the former while weeding out the latter.

It’s always been my nature to get up early, and that’s the best time of day for me. It’s when my batteries are fully charged, and I always feel set ...

Changing Habits

Terry here, answering our weekly question: If you could easily change one writing habit, what would it be? Starting earlier (or later) in the day? Become a plotter or pantser? Rush through a first draft or edit as you go? 
 I wrote my first Samuel Craddock book on our boat—a spacious catamaran. Every morning I woke up at 6AM, did a few stretches, brewed my cup of tea, then kicked my husband out of our cabin and started writing. (To be fair, he was always ready to go out and start working on some ...

If I Could Change One Thing ...

If you could easily change one writing habit, what would it be? Starting earlier (or later) in the day? Become a plotter or pantser? Rush through a first draft or edit as you go? 
Brenda kicking off the week.
I'm kind of envious of writers who get up early in the morning - say 6 a.m. -  and write for five or six straight hours, have lunch, work out, then settle in for a few hours of editing and publicity work. Some say they can maintain this schedule seven days a week. 
So, I guess if I could chang...

Read widely and other things my father taught me, by Josh Stallings

 

Q : Do you read only crime fiction? If so, why? If not, what else do you read? Does it affect your writing?

A: My taste in books is wide and wild, always has been. I do read more crime fiction than anything else, BUT, I have a wide view of what that means. I was told by a perspective agent that Young Americans was a coming of age novel mixed up with a crime novel and “you just can’t do that.” Thought about this for a while, and found it was bunk. What is To Kill A Mockingbird if not a coming of a...

Books make such good friends . . . in place of fear, by Catriona

  Q: Do you read only crime fiction? If so, why? If not, what else do you read? Does it affect your writing? 

What? The blog title? Yeah, I was trying something. I wrote a book called Quiet Neighbours, see, and "Books make such good friends and ..." was the perfect strapline for it. I thought I'd see if it would work again. It didn't. 

Disclaimer: I just got back to Scotland (about 20 hours ago) and am loopy with jet lag, as well as being slightly undercaffeinated. Bear with me.

Vew from hotel wind...

Tiptoe along the shelves... by Cathy Ace

Do you read only crime fiction? If so, why? If not, what else do you read? Does it affect your writing?

Interesting question…because I used to read a great deal of fiction that wasn’t crime fiction, but – in sitting down to answer this question – I realize that was quite a while ago.

If you look at my bookshelves – the ones that don’t have crime fiction on them – you’ll find some “very well-loved” copies of a great number of what one might call “the classics”. Most of these I have owned for deca...

My Mental Palate Cleansers - Stephen Mack Jones

 

        I love—absolutely love!—writing my “August Snow” thrillers. The writing itself is invigorating, frustrating, and always surprising. It’s an entertainment for me. A way of enlivening my rather modest life and informing me as to how I see and react to the world around me. And I think that’s also why I’ve always loved reading mysteries and thrillers; behind the bullets and explosions, beyond the poisoned body-counts and occasional sexual intrigue, there’s usually a story of human beings st...

Pick a Book, Any Book

 Q: Do you read only crime fiction? If so, why? If not, what else do you read? Does it affect your writing? 

- from Susan

 

Much as I enjoy it, a solid diet of crime fiction would become boring or worse. I’m three-dimensional: a mother, citizen, art lover, environment protector, vacationer, cook… Not sure how I could get along without the challenge, provocations, revelations, calls to action, and invitations to try my hand at recipes and new (to me) foods. I’m a voracious reader, have been all my l...

Rage, Rage against the Dying of the Light from James W. Ziskin

Would you ever consider retiring from writing? 

Nope.

Under what circumstances?

None.

How does it make you feel to consider retiring?

Like Dylan Thomas: Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

I love reading. And I love watching sports. Listening to music. Eating, too. And let’s not get started on drinking. I would never willingly abandon those joys, so why would I retire from writing? It’s more than a job, a hobby, or a pastime. For me, it’s a pleasure and a fundamental need.

I wrote my first novel...

Gas in the tank

Would you ever consider retiring from writing? Under what circumstances? How does it make you feel to consider retiring?

by Dietrich

Retirement was the reward that came after decades spent working at my career. Meaning, from that point on, I had time to turn my attention to what I really wanted to do. And I’ve got no idea what you’d call giving up on that.

While I ran a business, I dabbled at writing fiction now and then over the years, abandoning a couple of attempts at a novel, now and then tryin...