by Zoe M. McCarthy | Apr 30, 2015 | Writing
A man walks into a bookstore. “Where’s the self-help section?” he asks the clerk. She shrugs and replies, “If I tell you, won’t that defeat the purpose?” —AnonymousJan Elder is my guest today. She shares tips with us about a subject I’d like to master. Humor in...
by Zoe M. McCarthy | Apr 23, 2015 | Writing
“You write about what you know, and you write about what you want to know.” —Joyce Maynard I wrote Calculated Risk mostly from what I, or my husband, know. With curiosity and research, we can learn much about a subject. But often: It’s easier to create a character...
by Zoe M. McCarthy | Apr 16, 2015 | Writing
“The glory of the protagonist is always paid for by a lot of secondary characters.” —Tony Hoagland Most fiction writers have heard that the purpose of secondary characters is to support a main character. One of their jobs is to help flesh out a main character’s...
by Zoe M. McCarthy | Apr 9, 2015 | Writing
“Coincidence cannot replace motivation.” — Debra Dixon I’ve been reading Debra Dixon’s GMC: Goal, Motivation, and Conflict. Her discussion about coincidences spoke to me. I wanted a scene between my hero and his widowed sister-in-law, the heroine, concerning an ugly...
by Zoe M. McCarthy | Apr 2, 2015 | Writing
“ I take rejection as someone blowing a bugle in my ear to wake me up and get going, rather than retreat.” — Sylvester Stallone Through my writing, I’ve learned an important truth. I’ve gone to conferences, attended workshops, read books on the craft, been...
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