Writing Process

First Moments

Posted by Sarah L. Thomson on Dec 11, 2019 in Writing Process | 0 comments

A little green bee-eater in Keoladeo Bird Sanctuary, India. Tiny and vivid and swift–a perfect metaphor for a writer’s first fleeting idea for a new story.

I was talking with my writers’ group yesterday about that moment when an idea starts to form in your head. You’re thrilled yet anxious–what if you get distracted and it vanishes? What if what seems wonderful and glowing and yes! at this moment turns out to be absurd or embarrassing or just plain stupid a little later on, in the cold light of reason?

One of my friends quoted C. S. Lewis, saying that this moment is like birdwatching–you see something precious and beautiful and rare alight near you, but you know you can’t grab at it or you’ll lose it. So you sit, quietly, patiently, and then another image comes to join the first, and another, and you have it–the story. The start.

Another said it wasn’t images that she saw, but a mood she sensed–lightthearted and zany, sad but tough, tender and funny. This makes sense because I’ve yet to see her write two stories that are similar. Each one has a unique emotional hue.

For me, it’s a character–actually, it’s a sense of a character’s journey, like a glimmering thread. I can get this person from HERE to THERE. I’m not sure how or what will happen along the way, but I can glimpse the path we’re going to travel on.

Editing Services

Posted by Sarah L. Thomson on Jun 21, 2019 in Children's Literature, Editing, Writing Process, Writing Tips | 0 comments

Finished that manuscript? Need a second opinion or a professional touch to polish it up? I’m glad to recommend my friend and colleague, Michelle Coppola Ames, who has just hung up her shingle as a freelance editor. Michelle is an insightful editor, a talented writer, and an all-around lovely person. Look for her at Wordplay Editorial Services.

Sarah’s Writing Tips: #2

Posted by Sarah L. Thomson on Jun 4, 2019 in Writing Process, Writing Tips | 0 comments

Boredom: the feeling of your brain at work.

Allow yourself to get bored.

Boredom is not a catastrophe. It’s the feeling of your brain searching for the next idea. It’s mental effort taking place.

Don’t always reach for your phone. (Listen, I like a good game of Candy Crush myself, but still). If you’re stuck, sit at your desk and look out of the window and wait. Pretty soon you will be so bored with waiting that you will start writing.

Sarah’s Writing Tips: #1

Posted by Sarah L. Thomson on May 31, 2019 in Writing Process, Writing Tips | 0 comments

Mess: evidence of creativity.

Get messy.

1) A neat first draft is the enemy of creative thought and self confidence.

(That’s why I still write my first drafts in longhand. I can get messy and scribbly more easily with a pen in my hand than with my fingers on the keyboard.)

2) Double-space a typed first draft, or skip lines if you’re writing in longhand, to give yourself plenty of room for alterations and additions.