Tag: writers
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Tenacity = Writer
By Patricia Zick @PCZick We found this tree while driving through the Rocky Mountains. Its tap roots must be very long in order to find water through the rocks. This aspen tree demonstrates the qualities of tenacity. The word tenacious comes from the Latin tenac, which means “tending to hold fast.” Synonyms for tenacity include…
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Versatile Blogger Award
By Patricia Zick @PCZick This week my blog Writing Tips, Thoughts, and Whims was nominated twice for the Versatile Blogger award by two bloggers I greatly admire. Thank you, So Much To Write, So Little Time and 365 Things to Wrote About. If you don’t follow them already, visit their site. I think you’ll be…
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Incubating a Novel
“Write. Rewrite. When not writing or rewriting, read. I know of no shortcuts.” Larry L. King By Patricia Zick @PCZick My new novel is incubating. I finished the complete first draft in February. I gave it over to two beta readers who sent back their comments and suggestions in May. In the meantime, I read.…
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“Once a Upon a Time” is thankfully in the past
By Patricia Zick @PCZick Note: I wrote this column about publishing my first novel in 2000. Times have changed and after re-reading this piece and remembering, I’m happy they have. Viva la revolution! All I ever wanted to do was write, but I kept that knowledge to myself as I went to college and then…
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Win Live from the Road
Live from the Road is featured on Laurie’s Thoughts and Reviews today. The blog contains an excerpt from the book, an interview with me and a chance to win either a print or kindle version of the book. Drop by and visit and enter to win! The contest ends September 22, 2012. I’m shamelessly…
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All memory is fiction
By Patricia Zick @PCZick When writing a novel a writer should create living people; people, not characters. A character is a caricature. -Ernest Hemingway I just finished reading The Paris Wife by Paula McLain, a fictional account of Hemingway’s first marriage to Hadley Richardson. They married before he’d published any of his novels, and she…
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To Which or To That. . .
By Patricia Zick @PCZick that is the question, which I pose today. It’s always good to review the rules of grammar. Here’s an excellent article from Writer’s Digest on the vagaries of the not so interchangeable which and that. I probably need to read it a couple of times, even though I thought I knew…
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Point of View
“I almost always urge people to write in the first person. . .Writing is an act of ego and you might as well admit it.” William Zinsser Point of view is crucial in a novel. One of the quickest ways to turn me from a book is immature point of view. I often experiment with…