“There’s an old writing rule that says ‘Don’t have two character names start with the same letter’, but I knew at the beginning that I was going to have more than 26 characters, so I was in trouble there. Ultimately it comes down to what sounds right. And I struggle with that, finding the right […]
Don’t major in French, they said. It’s useless, they said. What “they” failed to take into account was that someday, a relative could win a trip to stay in a French chateau for free. And that this relative may need a translator. And then, as the sole French-speaking niece in the family, you will be invited to […]
As a writer, it’s a mantra you hear over and over: “Show, don’t tell.” There’s a reason it’s repeated endlessly: it’s one of the main things that separates good writing from bad writing.
I’m having one of those days (weeks, actually) where all I want to do is crawl inside a book and live there. Or just go to some remote, beautiful location and read good books and drink cocktails all day. The above book is one of my frequent rereads. I can’t recall ever reading an epistolary novel […]
I get a lot of questions when people find out I wrote a novel. One of the most popular is: how did you start? So if you’re thinking of writing a novel, I thought I’d share some advice on how to get started.
I long to be where the sand meets the sea….
Today’s post is less on writing, more on life, but what’s one without the other?
The current story I’m writing is about a group of high school kids on a school trip to Paris. It draws largely on my own experiences. I just wrote the part where they take a day trip out to the Loire Valley to see the chateaus, and writing about seeing those amazing places for the first time […]
Image found here Do you base your characters on real people? From everything I’ve read, this is somewhat of a no-no. I remember reading somewhere that J.K. Rowling has stated that none of her characters are based directly on real-life people (except for Crookshanks, who’s based on a real-life cat! I love that), but that shades […]
Over the weekend, I encountered a couple who was thinking of taking a trip to Normandy next year. I immediately started providing my unsolicited travel advice, since I used to live there. But before I had gotten very far, they interrupted me and said, “No no–we don’t have time for all of that. We just […]
