Tag: how to write
-
Episode Whatever of How to Work with Your Editor
I love when writers push back on my suggestions and questions. That’s when I know they have grasped the truth of their own story. They know what their characters would do or not do. They know how much their reader needs. When you know something is not working, say so to your editor. “I don’t think…
-
How to tell the truth
Truth-telling starts with you, in the moment. The novelist Carol Shields advised, “After writing, ask yourself, ‘Is this what I really mean?’” There’s an adage in writing: first thought best thought. Is it possible to over-edit your work, to edit the truth out of it? Sometimes. The first draft can contain a messiness that is…
-
Creating the conditions for growth
We have a saying in Canada: Good weather, eh? We’ll pay for it later. Canadians have a lot of sayings about weather 😉 It has been a cold, wet spring in the Pacific Northwest. A lot of my veggies and herbs bolted early (went to seed). I’m now drying kale pods in my house so…