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Robert Olen Butler and Caitlin Doughty on Writers on Writing

Posted November 24 2014 by Barbara DeMarco-Barrett

Pulitzer Prize winning author Robert Olen Butler joins Marrie Stone to talk about his latest Christopher Marlow Cobb novel, The Empire of Night, and how to utilize the “compost of the imagination” to create art. 

Licensed mortician Caitlin Doughty joins in the second half to discuss her memoir, Smoke Gets in Your Eyes and Other Lessons from the Crematory.  Caitlin gives advice on how to talk to children about death, what attracted her to mortuary science, and options for after-life care most people don’t know exist. 

Download audio. 

(Broadcast date: November 12, 2014)

Meg Wolitzer and Thrity Umrigar on Writers on Writing

Posted November 20 2014 by Barbara DeMarco-Barrett

New York Times bestselling author Meg Wolitzer joins Marrie Stone to talk about her latest young adult novel, Belzhar, her attraction to young adult fiction, Sylvia Plath, and what makes a compelling character.  Thrity Umrigar joins in the second half to discuss her latest novel, 
The Story Hour, and how the power of narrative has the ability to alter our world view.  

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(Broadcast date: October 15, 2014)

Alex Tizon and Carl Phillips on Writers on Writing

Posted September 4 2014 by Barbara DeMarco-Barrett

Alex Tizon, the author of Big Little Man: In Search of My Asian Self, is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist. He joins Nicole Nelson for a conversation about stereotypes in fiction and other art, journaling, and writing about identity. Then Carl Phillips, the author of The Art of Daring: Risk, Restlessness, Imagination and a distinguished poet with awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, The Pushcart Prize, and the Thom Gunn Award for Gay Male Poetry, talks about intentional and unintentional daring, life as a form of revision, and why we read poetry. 


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(Broadcast date: August 13, 2014)

J.K. Rowling’s keeping track/plot chart

Posted August 11 2014 by Barbara DeMarco-Barrett

I don’t much believe in traditional outlines, but I do believe in devising methods to keep track of the goings on in your novel. Here’s the link to what Rowling did. You’re going to have to copy and past since I can’t get it to link up within this post. And if that doesn’t work, google “JK Rowling plot” or visit openculture.com and it’s there, somewhere.

How J.K. Rowling Plotted Harry Potter with a Hand-Drawn Spreadsheet

Another way to make progress

Posted May 23 2014 by Barbara DeMarco-Barrett

This morning I remembered something my friend and colleague Neal Shusterman, who writes YA novels and does quite well at it, said some years back.  It was either when we were in Fictionaires together (an Orange County-based writing group where I also got to know T. Jefferson Parker, Elizabeth George, Jo-Ann Mapson, Maureen Taylor Smith, and Don Stanwood), or during an interview when he was on Writers on Writing, or for an article I wrote for Poets & Writers, but he said rather than writing a number of words or pages during any given day, he had a number he had to reach for the week. So if one day he wrote one, and another day, two, the next day he might write eight, to make up for not writing much previous days. Lately I’ve been doing just that.

For me, the number per day, five days a week, is four pages.  So every week, I need to write 20 pages of the novel I started a little more than two months ago.  I’m up to page 200.  I’m aiming for 240.

If you’re having trouble with a certain number of words or pages a day, give this a try.  A certain number every week offers a certain flexibility and latitude that works for writers like me, and maybe