Random notes in no particular order:
- Consider each chapter a movie – beginning, middle, and end – conflict and some resolution. Boy meets girl etc.
- My characters don’t lie … it’s one of my defects.
- Any time it sounds like writing, cut!
- Always go for RIGHT BRAIN revisions
- Each book is unique, special, fragile in its own way. Honor it.
- Talk to your readers. Like in a smoky bar.
- Rereading an old favorite, only to realize how much my own standards have risen.
- Certainly, there is room for a range of Midwestern writing as well – and for recognition of the manifold subtleties among the smaller localities within that country. It ain’t as bland as you’d think.
- “Riotous complexity moving swiftly within a basic unity” (from How the Irish Saved Civilization) … not a bad formula for creativity, is it?
- What was I really hoping to accomplish, back when there were only 500 new novels a week?
Jnana's Red Barn 