MUSE • Leslie Keenan

A Space of One’s Own: Where Writers Write

Posted by in Writing

From my Newsletter, Late Autumn 2007 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Where do you write? Do you have a space you are comfortable with? Long before Virginia Woolf wrote A Room of One’s Own, writers needed some space. I’m sure most of us would love to have the studio on the back of the property as Virginia Woolf did. Or the studio I saw on C-Span again not long ago, where they gave us a tour of David McCullough’s studio in the back yard (on his house in Martha’s Vineyard-I can forgive him only…read more

Nov.25
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Editing 101: How Much, What Kind, and When?

Posted by in Writing

From my Newsletter, Fall 2007. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A couple of clients have been asking me how you know what level of editing to do when. They were all non-fiction people, but I think these guidelines apply to both fiction and non-fiction. However, with fiction, you may not get to the putting it together part until you’ve already done a first draft. When you are putting together a book, you want to work from the top down, so that you don’t find yourself getting really detailed in a piece that may not…read more

Nov.11
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The Seven Basic Plots

Posted by in Writing

From my Newsletter, May 2007. Last newsletter I promised a fuller description of my new favorite book, “The Seven Basic Plots” by Christopher Booker (no kidding, that’s his name!). It’s published by Continuum in paperback and it’s over 700 pages long. (See the link below if you are interested in purchasing it.) Whether you’re working on fiction or a memoir, it’s helpful to think in terms of plot, so here’s the synopsis. The Seven Basic Plots Are: –Overcoming the Monster (think Jaws) –Rags to Riches (David Copperfield) –The Quest (Odysseus)…read more

Oct.28
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Courage: Completing the Book

Posted by in Writing

From my Newsletter, December 2006. This year I had the opportunity to work with two magnificent writers, helping them complete their manuscripts. One was writing fiction, one non-fiction. I was amazed to observe that the necessity for both was the same: to let go of their own attachment to the writing or the stories in order to serve the needs of the book. I watched one (the non-fiction writer) letting go of large swaths of good material to focus on the real story. I watched the other (the fiction writer)…read more

Oct.14
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The Library

Posted by in Writing

Yesterday I left the library with my arms full of books. I realized how much I love books! And the library! I love that I can walk in looking for one particular book (in this case, one I’d forgotten at home when I left the house in the morning) and end up seeing other books on the shelf that interest me that I wouldn’t have thought of. And because it’s the library I can just grab them without worrying about whether I really need them or not. Then I go…read more

Sep.30
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Starting again

Posted by in Writing

I tried to blog. I really did. But I didn’t like the way it looked and couldn’t spend time making it pretty. And then my laptop got stolen and it was really hard to keep posting, mostly because it’s hard to type at a desk with a two-year-old in your lap. But now I have a pretty new laptop, and a pretty new website thanks to Jon Leland and Combridges. So I am starting over. Plus, after telling all my writing students over and over, “If you are writing today,…read more

Jun.01
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