Susan Palmer's Exquisite Now

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Category: writing

How do you know you’re a writer? If you wrote today, you’re a writer.

  • First time for everything

    I’ve written a few novels (OK, four), had one published, but I’ve never written an actual synopsis of any of my novels. I’ve written dozens of query letters, sure. But I had a mental block against writing a 500-word condensation of my 80,000-word work product. That’s a problem because about half the hundreds of agents…

  • Yes, you are

    Creative, I mean. Even if you think you aren’t. I love this book of poetry prompts by poet Joseph Fasano. In my book club, (OK, truthfully, my mother and two sisters meeting weekly on Zoom; we talk books to maintain fresh discussion points), we enjoy using the prompts in Fasano’s book to write. His prompts…

  • The weapon of suspense…

    In yesterday’s blog I mentioned E.M. Forster’s book “Aspects of the Novel.” An early 20th-century novelist, Forster’s book on writing has been on my desk for a couple of decades. It is taken from a series of lectures he gave on the subject and has a fine spoken feel, in addition to being true, and…