Jeanette Taylor of The Scribes is a writer, instructor, mentor and editor. She shares monthly musings about writing, based upon her classes and workshops. She also posts history tales of the BC coast. Read more…
Write a More Convincing Scene
Show Readers What's Happening Give Them the Details So They Can Draw Their own Conclusions Readers want to be active participants in the story—to draw their own conclusions, rather than simply be told what the narrator thinks. So for passages or scenes where you want...
Help for a stalled writing project
Is Your Writing Project Stalled? First Draft Rehab a.k.a when a promising early draft hits the skids Blog Post by Annette Yourk, Sept 5, 2016 Your manuscript is tucked into its box. There’s more work ahead, but you’re feeling good. You’ve gone the extra mile; tidied...
Guidelines for a Successful Writers’ Group
What to Expect From a Writers' Group You’ve written and rewritten that piece SO many times you've lost perspective. You need feedback. A writers' group, or a writing partner, is the best way to get that. A friend or lover, keen reader though she may be, will probably...
Maria Carlotta Boond’s Mysterious Death on Quadra Island, B.C.
Maria Carlotta Boond’s Tangled Web There were no twists of smoke rising from Maria Boond’s chimney. Nor were there any tracks in the snow around her cottage on the hill overlooking a jumble of seine boats and trollers in Quathiaski Cove. That was odd. But lots of...
A First Step in a Writing Project: Identify Your Audience
Identify Your Audience as a First Step in Your Writing Project It Determines Content, Voice, Tone and Language Writing is a complex form of communication. You’re speaking to people who must decipher your ideas through the filter of their own perspective, experiences,...
Writing tool to release creativity and organize ideas
Mind Mapping: A Thinking Tool for Writers Try mind mapping (or 'clustering') to assess an illusive subject, or sort and organize a log jam of information. It's a simple brain storming-style exercise. A flip chart page and coloured pens produce a large format...
Get a free manuscript review!
A New Draw for a Free Manuscript Review has been Launched! Jane Wilson’s plans for retirement from a high stress social services job included writing. It’s in her blood. Her older sister Jocelyn Reekie has several books in print and Jane’s an avid reader. But two...
Writing about a Story’s Setting
The Story's Setting can be a Dynamic Force Setting is more than just the place where the action unfolds. It can be a compelling force that keeps the story in a readers' mind years later. It can shape or mirror the unfolding drama, as a metaphor or with such intensity...
Memoirs require focus, perspective and clarity
Totem Poles and Tea, by Hughina Harold A Stellar Example of a Memoir with a Focused Theme Every writer hopes their book will be in print a decade after its release—but that’s not often the case—especially with local history memoirs. The first edition of Totem Poles...
Write About Intriguing People From the Past
Nonfiction Writing is Enhanced by Memorable Characters...but Details about People from the Past Can be Hard to Find 1. Create a timeline of the important events of your main characters' lives, with all the known details: race, nationality, marital status, education,...
Editing a Draft Memoir or Family History
Editing an Early Draft of a Memoir, Biography or Family History Here's some questions to guide your review of an early draft of a scene, or any nonfiction writing. These questions will focus your attention on story flow and structure, rather than the picky details...
Where to Start Writing Family History or Memoir
Where to Start with Writing Memoir or Family History You’ve got a story that snaps with vigor in your imagination—but you can't seem to get started writing. Sound familiar? This is the issue—above all others—that stymies students in Annette’s and I’s writing classes....