It’s hard to believe now, but in the first half of the 19th century, tuberculosis—or consumption, as it was known until the 1880s—was responsible for one in five deaths, making it America’s deadliest disease. It was widely believed to be hereditary (like insanity), in part because multiple family members across generations died of the disease.… Continue reading Doc Holliday’s incessant cough
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Screenwriting for novelists
I was familiar with many of the concepts and terms Larry Brooks uses from having studied Syd Field’s “Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting.” I wound up turning to Field—and his book is a fantastic resource—when I couldn’t find the nuts-and-bolts guidelines I needed to whip a novel into shape. And it’s often much easier to… Continue reading Screenwriting for novelists
Circus tents and story structure
Larry Brooks The snapshot of my “treadmill” journal in my previous post has a reference to “circus tent plots.” That’s worth explaining. I took a Writer’s Digest webinar in March led by Larry Brooks. The webinar focused on making sure you have a compelling premise for your book, but Brooks also talked briefly about a… Continue reading Circus tents and story structure
How to log more writing time
The most useful piece of writing advice I have ever read—and followed—is Gregory Martin’s treadmill journal technique. Martin, who teaches at the University of New Mexico, cuts through the romanticism of only writing when you’re inspired and said students who believe writing should be fun and spontaneous “become highly accomplished at writing unpublishable first drafts.”… Continue reading How to log more writing time
Bass Reeves: The inspiration for the Lone Ranger?
Bass Reeves Just in time for the release of Disney’s “The Lone Ranger” movie, the July issue of True West magazine has an intriguing article about the possible real-life model for the masked man. The author, Art T. Burton, wrote a biography of Deputy U.S. Marshal Bass Reeves, and he makes a compelling case. Reeves,… Continue reading Bass Reeves: The inspiration for the Lone Ranger?
A.X. Ahmad: The life of a debut novelist
This is slightly off-topic, but I just have to give a shout-out to a fantastic writing instructor and one of the hardest-working writers I know. A.X. Ahmad’s debut novel “The Caretaker”—the first in a trio of literary thrillers—came out this week and he’s getting some terrific press. Here is the description from Tom Nolan’s review… Continue reading A.X. Ahmad: The life of a debut novelist
Bill Cheng: Letting history seep into the writer
I caught an NPR interview with debut novelist Bill Cheng, who’s written a book called “Southern Cross the Dog” about a boy who survives the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927. Cheng lives in New York City and has never been to Mississippi. Of course, he also didn’t live through that devastating event, but that should… Continue reading Bill Cheng: Letting history seep into the writer
A pawn’s-eye view of the Second Battle of Manassas
I know there are people who go to battlefields to get a sense of the grand, strategic sweep of the thing, to study tactics and imagine armies arrayed like chess pieces across the fields and hills. But I am much more interested in the individual soldier’s experience. The guides at Manassas National Battlefield Park are… Continue reading A pawn’s-eye view of the Second Battle of Manassas
Adam Johnson: Data mining your writing habits
Pulitzer Prize winner Adam Johnson Adam Johnson, who just won the Pulitzer Prize for “The Orphan Master’s Son,” did an interview in the July 2012 issue of “The Writer” magazine. It’s one of the “How I Write” features on the back page, so it’s mostly in Johnson’s words. I saved the article as soon as… Continue reading Adam Johnson: Data mining your writing habits
History in your own backyard
I live on the East Coast, which makes visits to historic sites in the West a bit of a challenge. For my novel, I researched classic one-room schoolhouses to help me get a better sense of the kind of education a young woman might have had in the Midwest in the 1860s to about 1870… Continue reading History in your own backyard
Writing Can Be Hazardous to Your Personal Life
I was going through my notes on the O.K. Corral gunfight one day when my boyfriend and I got into a conversation about space exploration. He was talking about artificial intelligence and how a thousand years from now, we won’t be organic beings but some sort of consciousness in silicon. I was having trouble focusing… Continue reading Writing Can Be Hazardous to Your Personal Life
Uncoiling plot structures
I recently read an article by John McPhee on the topic of structure, and I’ve been doodling diagrams ever since. (The article is in the Jan. 14 issue of The New Yorker; unfortunately, you can’t read the whole article unless you’re a subscriber, but you can buy the issue online.) McPhee includes diagrams of various… Continue reading Uncoiling plot structures
Terri J. Huck 