Once, I was a full-time writer.
My day began at six, with coffee and a slice or two of fruit toast. I’d ruminate on character arcs and plot developments as though they were the very stuff of life. If time …
The Writer Laid Bare
Inhabiting Your Characters
Some time ago I was approached by a writer asking me to mentor her. She was writing a novel set in seventeenth century Spain. I read the synopsis. The story – a young woman has to choose between her sexual …
A Guest Post by Maria Katsonis: The Writer Who Reveals
In an interview with Design Matters, writer Dani Shapiro stated: ‘When you bring out a memoir, the feeling is of the life being reviewed — not the book being reviewed.’ Many memoirists, as they start unfolding their lives on …
Let me count the ways in which I dislike you, my beloved character
Recently I read the novel Freedom by Jonathan Franzen. I didn’t like much any of its main characters – an angry, depressive rocker; a housewife who spends her life not doing what she wants; her saintly husband who nevertheless sells …
A Guest Post by Rochelle Siemienowicz: On writing about people I know and love
‘Remember that novel I wrote, inspired by our open marriage?’
‘Yes.’
‘Well it’s finally being published. As a memoir.’
‘I see.’
‘Don’t worry. I’ve turned you into a beautiful character.’
‘Just what I always wanted. To be a character.’
…
Why do I write (and not, let’s say, professionally cook)?
‘Why do I write?’ is a question I have asked myself not once, particularly when I receive publishers’ rejections, or hear about some friend’s obscene corporate salary, or when I am paralyzed by fear before starting a new project, or …