Okay, not easy. Easier. You’ve probably heard that reformatting your word processing page single-spaced with narrow margins (making it look more like a book page) is one way to get fresh eyes on your work-in-progress. Even better, if you have a Kindle, try the personal document feature (Send to Kindle) to examine your manuscript. A different format helps …
I’m lucky to be able to focus, meaning I can think steadily on an issue for hours at a time. But like everyone’s, my idea stream regularly runs dry. Here are my favorite techniques for recovery. Sleep. Most obvious: take a nap, preferably with a problem in mind, like “How will she escape?” or “Why didn’t …
Writing from scratch is harder than cooking from scratch, unless you’re copying someone else’s recipe. When you write from scratch, you must concoct the ingredients, too. The first ingredient of The Girl on the Mountain grew from my dream about a poor child huddled in bushes at the door of a privileged home. An open …