18 Apr 2018

Do writers have a sacred duty?

by | posted in: Writing Life | 1

In 1988, I took my first, full-blown creative writing class at Valencia Community College in Orlando, Florida. Our teacher rushed into the room with a huge smile, muttered a brief hello, and launched into the session. “Let’s start with the basics. First, what is the writer’s sacred duty?” he asked, peering at students in the front. Bushy eyebrows bouncing up and down, he gripped the small brown podium. I panicked. I’d recently returned to college after more than a decade, … Read More »
13 Apr 2018

RPLA Showcase: Carol J. Post

by | posted in: Florida Writers Association, RPLA Showcase | 2

Unpublished Romance Trust My Heart Carol J. Post At the 2017 Royal Palm Literary Award Banquet, author Carol J. Post won First Place for her unpublished romance novel, Trust My Heart. Each year at the RPLA Banquet, authors experience the joy of earning accolades for all the hard work that is often done in the privacy of the home with little to no recognition. We’re showcasing the best of the best with our First Place winners spotlight. Not only does RPLA recognize … Read More »
11 Apr 2018

Agency and Writing Female Characters

by | posted in: Writing Craft | 4

Agency is “the capacity, condition, or state of acting or of exerting power . . .” Agency is something adults have, usually. Some level of authority, capability, assertion, action, or overt influence. Traditionally, it has been male fictional characters who just naturally have agency. They make decisions that affect the plot and the lives of the other characters. They take independent action and accept the consequences. The writing world is in the process of normalizing agency in female characters. The traditional … Read More »
6 Apr 2018

The Writing Life: The Use of Readers While Drafting

by | posted in: Writing Life | 14

Fiction or non-fiction, a time comes in every manuscript’s evolution when we, the writer, just want to know one thing. Is it working? Maybe we’re so far out to sea in a work that we can no longer see the shoreline. Perhaps we’ve sailed it harbor-to-harbor, maybe even twice, but still aren’t quite sure where the shoals lie. Or, the scariest possibility of all, there’s miles of smooth seas under the hull of our work and safe harbor in sight … Read More »
28 Mar 2018

Ancillary Viewpoint: Getting that Different Perspective

by | posted in: Writing Craft | 4

Occasionally, you’ll read a short story or novel in which the point of view is not that of the principal character. This might strike you as odd. If the story tells of Blustery Bob the Protagonist, why wouldn’t the author have us follow Blustery Bob in first person or his third person subjective viewpoint? Why do we get the story from the viewpoint of Sidekick Sam? If the writer knows her stuff, she made an intentional and correct choice. When … Read More »
26 Mar 2018

RPLA Showcase: Betsy S. Lee

by | posted in: Florida Writers Association, RPLA Showcase | 2

2017 Unpublished Novella The Relic: Jerusalem to St. Augustine Betsy S. Lee At the 2017 Royal Palm Literary Award Banquet, author Betsy S. Lee won First Place for her unpublished novella, The Relic: Jerusalem to St. Augustine. Each year at the RPLA Banquet, authors experience the joy of earning accolades for all the hard work that is often done in the privacy of the home with little to no recognition. We’re showcasing the best of the best with our First … Read More »

1 … 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 … 101