Fuzzy Worship
I’m headed into the city this evening to hear John Scalzi read from Fuzzy Nation. I’ve loved the Little Fuzzy books (and I’ll note that there’s a bunch of his stuff free for e-readers) since...
View ArticleMay Stats
26,000 words fiction written, roughly 8k of nonfiction. Sadly, the travel website I’ve been working for, HelloSeattle.com, has laid off its writers, so I’m looking for more freelancing work. 17 queries...
View ArticleMore Dorothy Dunnett Analysis
More Dunnett, this time a fight scene that’s as carefully choreographed as her prose. Here Lymond and Jerott are fighting, and it’s soon after Jerott’s ideas of Lymond have been reversed. It doesn’t...
View ArticleExplaining Things In Fiction
Sometimes what feels like a sledgehammer blow of information to the writer may be just a gentle tap for the reader.One of the things we spend some time on in the Writing F&SF class is how to...
View ArticleFree Flash Fiction – Up The Chimney
As we all know, the true purpose of the Internet is the collection of cat photos. This is Raven, emerging from a boxIt’s Friday and the Clarion West Write-a-thon is about to start. So in its honor,...
View ArticleNews about Classes for the Rest of 2012
Dresden says: "Pass this link along!" Please pass this information along to your social networks if you knpow anyone who might be interested in an online class in writing, editing, or social networking...
View ArticleWriting And Courage
Linoleum print I did in 2008 (?). Meant to use it on Christmas cards, then never got around to it.To talk about this, I need to talk about the scariest thing that ever happened to me. Bear with me. In...
View ArticleConnections
Here's one of my newer connections, nephew Mason. Even though he's exhausted his father, he's still cuddling up while watching "Adventure Time" with the rest of us.I had a wonderful time talking to...
View ArticleTools For Writers: Using Dragon Dictate
For a couple of months now, I’ve been experimenting with using Dragon Dictate for writing, both fiction and nonfiction. In fact, I’m using it to write this post. It’s not perfect. I do have to go back...
View ArticleAbout Writing: Coaxing a Seed into a Story
This is a photograph of one sheet of notes from planning the class. Often stories are planned this way as well. I'll jot down what I know so far about it and begin using that information to generate...
View ArticleGetting Back in the Groove
Why crocodiles, of all things, to accompany a post about writing? Because there's so many things out there waiting to eat your writing time, to gobble it down and leave you with only the shreds. Tried...
View ArticleToday’s Wordcount and Other Notes (8/21/2014)
Three whales this morning - they came out of the water enough that we could see there was one large and two small and think they might have been humpback whales. Vida pura, indeed.Lots of skipping...
View ArticleWriting Outside One’s Comfort Zone
Outside the comfort zone is where the best art lies.We’ve all got a comfort zone, the place where we can function easily, where we know what to expect. It’s a nice place. It’s…well, it’s COMFORTABLE....
View ArticleMore About That Comfort Zone Thing
Here's a picture of that pool, taken from the balcony.I was thinking more about the idea of writing outside your comfort zone, and found something that’s happened recently pretty applicable. I have...
View ArticleOn Writing: When A Story Clicks
While perseverance matters, breaks are important too. Yesterday we went to Manuel Antonio Park and spent a fabulous day, culminating with coming home and going walking in wonderful, warm rain for a...
View ArticleVideo for the Flash Fiction Class
I’ve been having enough fun with the free version of Powtoons that I’m thinking about upgrading. Here’s a video for the flash fiction that I’m 90% happy with. Please like it or share it if you enjoy it.
View ArticleGuest Post from Kim Mainord: Mileage May Vary
You can find more of Kim’s words at her website, ninjakeyboard.blogspot.com.Note from Cat: March 2 kicks off two months of blog content dedicated to promoting my new (first!) novel, Beasts of Tabat....
View ArticleWriters and Natural Talent: More About that MFA essay
Recently, Ryan Boudinot wrote an essay for The Stranger titled “Things I Can Say About MFA Writing Programs Now That I No Longer Teach in One“. Among other things, he observed: Either you have a...
View ArticleWriting Through Pain
Even in the hospital, there are balloons. There are flowers right now, and in the evenings, the tree frogs sing to welcome their new overlord, Spring.This is a hard post to write, because I tend to...
View ArticleGuest Post from Everett Maroon: Becoming a Writer
Everyone always wants to know the writer’s writing origins, when for many of us we can’t recall the first time we scratched out a story. Was it a moment of inspiration, they want to know, a story we’d...
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