Writing process
Playing in Inkwood
I was twenty, and it was somewhere round three o’clock in the morning. I sat at a battered desk in the corner of the bedroom in my basement apartment in Montreal. The floor was warped from one of the unending water leaks in the ancient plumbing and the desk wobbled. Charlie Mingus’s music played from…
Read MoreSHARPENING THE QUILL WORKSHOPS
I am thrilled to announce I’ve begun creative writing workshops in Princeton – last Saturday of every month! I invite you to join us. Although we’re just beginning. We are already a group of friendly, supportive writers — some just starting on the writer’s journey, others already well published. Fiction, memoir, poetry, flash fiction, creative…
Read MoreExamined on the Examiner
Maybe I should travel more often! I’ve had some lovely things happen while I’ve been away these past two weeks. One was the interview I did with poet Diane Lockward on www.Shewrites.com, which I linked to in the preview blog, and now this: Renee Miller, at www.Examiner.com has written a beautiful review of THE RADIANT…
Read More5 Questions
I am writing from beautiful Stow-on-the-wolds in England — cheerful beyond measure by splendid countryside and cream teas. While I’ve been away, the folks at the social networking site for women writers, Shewrites.com, have kindly posted a feature on me, called “Five Questions for Lauren B. Davis.” This week poet Diane Lockward asks award-winning novelist…
Read MoreAll's well that ends "well"
I read a novel yesterday by a promising young writer and although I enjoyed it, I was reminded of just how important satisfying endings are. Like openings, endings are tricky. When editors send back a short story or reject a novel, nine times out of ten they’ll say the ending didn’t work for them. It’s…
Read MoreNewsflash — nobody has a clue
Before I published, I had this fantasy that somewhere, perhaps on the top floor of a glittering skyscraper in New York City, at the end of a long corridor lined with books and the portraits of famous writers, was a room in which stood a heavy oak table surrounded by high-backed leather chairs. In these…
Read MoreApproaching the page… "Hello, Page."
I was out for dinner with a writer I admire last week, she asked me if I actually read poetry. I noted the word “actually” as a hint she didn’t. I said I did. “Huh,” she said. “I could never quite get into it.” Now, this writer is a non-fiction writer, and a humorist, and…
Read MoreWriter, dreaming…
I’m a big dreamer. Most writers are, I think. I was raised as an only child, a none-too-popular one at that, and thus books and my imagination provided a good deal of my entertainment. I spent many a summer afternoon in an old abandoned apple-orchard near my house. A stream trickled through it and I…
Read MoreWriting through rough waters
Not long ago I was speaking with my spiritual director, Sister Rita, about some revision I was doing to the novel I’m working on. I talked about the beginning of the book, wherein a certain character — a 7th century Irish boy — has a vision and, regardless of opposition, follows that vision. He builds…
Read MoreHow not to write
There are innumerable ways to avoid getting your writing done for the day. Most writers are geniuses at the art of procrastination, and I am no exception. Here are a few of the techniques I’ve used so far this morning… I woke up at 6:45 a.m. Tea. Can’t think without it. Call a friend. He…
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