Write like your favorite artists throughout history painted. The ones who made history, and even those who didn’t. Breaking rules, from the heart, after years or decades of practice. And standing on shoulders of giants who went before them, by following those genius paths, though still originating their own style. Coloring outside conventional lines, or…
Category: writing
Based on True Stories, Inspired by, or?
Just as I was going to reveal ‘secrets’ about the true story inspiration of my latest novel here, I realized that all my novels have been more or less rooted in reality, and real people’s lives. Hence, the following thoughts. A novel doesn’t have to be based on a true story, nor even exactly inspired…
Post Novel Depression
Is there such a thing as ‘Post Novel Depression’, and is it anything like or related to ‘Post Natal Depression’? You can be assured that I have suffered the former a number of times, though I can’t say that I have fallen ill to the latter. Over some years, I have given birth to both…
Painting with Words
Prose is usually painting with words, is it not? Particularly anything poetic, we’d suppose. Still, writing any prose is more similar to putting a painting together than one might realize at first glance. Paints or words, it takes an artist to sculpt it into a shape worth enjoying. Whether painting or writing, sketch your ‘story’…
Character Driven Stories
If you find fiction devoid of action, suspense, mystery, horror, comedy or even history, boring; a much more character driven story might not be your complete cup of tea. Still, does not all fiction need realistic or relatable characters that the reader will care about, to succeed? To me, characters are key. Character driven is…
Toggle Writing Method
About a year ago when one of my sons challenged me to try NaNoWriMo for the first time, I confess I was not initially thrilled to accept that ‘write a novel in a month’ gauntlet as thrown down. It wasn’t that I didn’t think I could do a rough draft of a new novel in…
Composite Characters, Traits and Types
How many times has somebody asked me such as, ‘Is that character actually me?’ or ‘Is that her?’, ‘Did you base that guy on him?’, ‘Did you have an evil stepmother in growing up?’, ‘Were you an orphan or adopted?’ or ‘Is your mother-in-law the sweet one, or the horrid one?’ and any number of…
Kerri Bennett Williamson 