Mirka Muse

  The voice of a story comes to me in the form of a line. For me, it’s usually the first sentence/paragraph.   This line also contains t...

  I was mulling over the strange creatures called Second Drafts. (Full disclosure, my WIP is now on its fifth draft, which is not nearly ...

 Some years back, a publishing professional suggested I not introduce so many characters by name in the first chapter. I counted the names...

  Motivation—the kind that propels our actions (such as my writing this post) is key to a good story. As a Beta reader, I have read manusc...

  *Yup, I know the extra ‘m’ is not grammatical. I’m making a point   Some months ago in a writerly Facebook group, someone lamented at ...

The title of this post is misleading in my case, because technically the money was spent by DH, which technically isn’t me.  Here goes: ...

You may know the brilliant children’s book series IF YOU GIVE A MOUSE A COOKIE. This post is not about that if , but about the inevitable ...

Most good stories are memorable because of their characters. Most writerly how-to advice says to start with character. I always ha...

When DS, an enthusiastic baking intern at the home kitchen, noted how quickly the dough rose as compared to his previous experiences, I co...

Or Writers and Conferences I wrote this post *just* before COVID-19 blasted the four corners of the earth, and all conferencing went...

a.k.a “Time-management” “Where did the time go?” “Forwards, darling. Always forward.” Time marches in one direction and, excep...

Every writer knows how important a strong, engaging, punch ‘em in the gut opening is to selling a story. It’s the antithesis to the wa...

When I read that a writer revised a novel sixty-four or a hundred-and-eleven times, I am not awed. I'm baffled. Tackling a revision ...

Mary, Mary, quite contrary, How does your garden grow? With silver bells, and  cockle  shells, And pretty maids all in a row. Olde E...

An Audience! In her excellent collection of essays about the writing life, ( Bird by Bird) Anne Lamott tells of her experience teachi...

A writer friend lamented that she gets feedback from readers who complain that her stories are open ended. “Isn’t that what real life is?”...

Do you like Audio Books? My experience is both limited and mixed. I listened to a few books on long drives. I can firmly state tha...

If you’ve been writing and submitting stories to editors or agents, eventually you might get a personal suggestion to take that short stor...

Ahm...Not As one whose blog is not the talk of the town, I am an authority on how not to have a blog that gets attention. Whe...

A few months ago a writer on a kid-lit chat board asked how others approach revising a novel. She’s written many picture book texts, b...