I have been working on a new novel, with a nagging sense that it was not going well. Although I went over it any number of times, I could not figure out what was wrong. The perfect moment to ask someone else to read it and give a critique. That I did, and what came
It used to be that I spent a fair amount of time visiting schools, in classrooms. I still do some visits but most of my visiting is now done via Skype. In this school year I’ve already done forty such visits, and the term is not yet over. Considering where I live, high (as in Rocky
One of the hardest aspects of writing occurs when your first important reader, and/or your editor, says, “Okay, but you need to make major changes.” Sometimes, that admonition comes with a specific suggestion, as in, “I think you need to show why ….” Or “Maybe you want to add another character.” If you agree—and that’s
Justin, from Fresno writes, “What was your first book and how did it get written?” When my eldest son, Shaun, was three, we had a fairly familiar bedtime practice. He would get on my lap, and ask me to tell him a story. I would ask what the story should be about. He would try
“With all your experience writing,” someone asked me, “and if your new novel is going badly, do you always know what to do?” The short answer is no. Moreover, I would suggest, if the work is not going well, you do not need to know what to do. You need to know what the novel needs.
One of the reasons reading and writing is so difficult to teach in today’s schools is because it is not commonly understood that writing is a unique form of the English language. It is, in general, different from the way English is spoken. It is often different from the various ways English is spoken, in
There is one aspect of professional publishing that is rarely talked about, the tension between publishing and the writer. I am not speaking here about problems in marketing, royalties, or any of the business problems that always come up, which have their own strains. I am referencing the clash of egos between writers and editors.
In the late Nineteenth Century, and early Twentieth Century, because of its proximity to Ellis Island, one of the major landing sites for immigrants, thousands upon thousands of people came to New York City. As it happened, many of these people found tenement housing in Manhattan, around and about what is called the Lower East
When I was a senior in high school, I kept a diary, the only time I have really done so. On March 28, 1955, (I was seventeen) an entry reads; “Well, I finally said it out loud. I intend to stay with the theatre. In the theatre, one can be everything in the world—write—that’s for
I made my first school visit in 1970. Since that time, there have been countless such visits, in classrooms, auditoriums, and these days via Skype. I have been in front of audiences at many, many conferences as well. All venues vary enormously, in both location (every state) and a few countries abroad. Despite the variations,