21 Dec 2018

Ekphrasis: Writing About Music

by | posted in: Writing Craft | 2

How do we write about music? This is a form of what the ancient Greeks called ekphrasis: the description of one art in another. Not all of us are musicians, but nearly everyone likes one kind of music or another. It brings something wonderful to our lives, punctuates our memories, stirs our emotions. And when I think back upon some of the most life-changing books I’ve read (Homer’s Odyssey and the Sirens’ song, anyone?), the magic of music played a … Read More »
19 Dec 2018

‘Tis the Season to Keep Writing

by | posted in: Writing Life | 2

Santa Claus flies a sleigh pulled by reindeer, lumbers down brick chimneys, and stashes gifts under light-strewn evergreens. In operating rooms across the country, surgeons dress in hospital-green outfits, don paper masks, and remove tumors from unconscious patients. Behind closed doors, writers sit in desk chairs reading, thinking, and writing stories, poems, and plays. We hear, “You are what you do.” How about, “Do what you are.” Are you Santa? Are you a surgeon? Are you a writer? If you’re … Read More »
17 Dec 2018

The Gift of Reading

by | posted in: Writing Life | 9

As we celebrate another holiday season, gift-giving tops our to-do lists. As writers—and this may be preaching to the choir—we have a perspective on that both personal and universal. Most of us have books on our wish lists. We want books, and constant reading anchors our growth as writers. But asking for books also helps keep afloat our industry, the industry of the written word. When our friends and families buy us those books, book people—writers, publishers, editors, agents, readers, … Read More »

Bill Dougherty
14 Dec 2018

“Hollywood Wants Your Second Movie” RPLA Showcase: Bill Dougherty

by | posted in: RPLA Showcase, Writing Craft | 3

Bill Dougherty isn’t afraid to roll up his sleeves and do whatever it takes to create a successful screenplay. Years of learning craft? Check. Intense study of industry standards? You bet. Dive deep into research to get every detail right? Done. He’s written fourteen novels and eleven screenplays and continues to hone his craft with each one. In this week’s RPLA Showcase, Bill Dougherty, First Place winner for Unpublished Screenplay, shares the importance of themes in screenplays and how he … Read More »
12 Dec 2018

Attributions: A Contrasting Point of View

by | posted in: Writing Craft | 9

Currently, stronger synonyms for said are out of fashion. A century or more ago, writers stretched for synonyms for said: asseverated, averred, conveyed, voiced, uttered, proclaimed … and it became distracting, even ridiculous. The current enthusiasm for just plain … may be a reaction against that excess. On the other hand, the quality of the speaker’s voice can sometimes be important information for the reader, adding texture and nuance, and conveying the character’s mood or emotion. “Over my dead body,” … Read More »
7 Dec 2018

Plot Holes

by | posted in: Writing Craft | 4

Ah, the dreaded glitch. We’ve spent months or maybe years on a story, alternately elated and despairing that we’ll ever find the end. Or maybe we wrote right through the first draft to the end and have spent that time fleshing our baby out, adding meat and fluff scene by scene or line by line. And then we see it on the fifth read-through. The plot hole big enough to fly the starship Enterprise through. Or maybe it’s only Mini-Cooper … Read More »

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