I have an odd habit at night. I reread my own novels. I’ve been doing it for years, and I suppose there are several reasons for it. I enjoy returning to the characters. I notice things I would write differently now. Sometimes I remember exactly where I was when I wrote a particular scene; other… Continue reading What Is Actually on the Shelf?
Category: Notice
The Person Behind the Label
This week I’ve been moving back and forth among three writing projects: the Billy and Molly series, I Dare You, Teacher, and The Boaz Superstition. They’re very different projects, but I’ve noticed something happening in all three. I’m having a harder time putting people into neat little boxes. That’s probably a good thing. Take Billy… Continue reading The Person Behind the Label
What Story Can Do That Argument Cannot
This week I found myself moving back and forth between two very different writing projects. One was the Billy and Molly series. The other was I Dare You, Teacher. One is fiction. The other is nonfiction. Yet each revision kept teaching me the same lesson. Whenever I stopped trying to explain an idea and started… Continue reading What Story Can Do That Argument Cannot
Standing Beside the Witness
What writing has been teaching me lately. This week, while working on both the Billy and Molly series and I Dare You, Teacher, I realized how much my own writing has changed. Months ago, I often approached difficult ideas the way a courtroom lawyer approaches a witness. My instinct was to expose contradictions, challenge assumptions,… Continue reading Standing Beside the Witness
The Pencil-Driven Life 