Ask the Author: Anne Meredith
Answered Questions (6)
Anne Meredith
A number of books.
1. BEAST - a book about a woman dealing with grief, who loses her dog, and then he comes back to life as kind of a superhero. She becomes a sort of graphic novel kickass vigilante in her 50s. Probably need to come up with a better plot summary than that.
2. LAKESIDE PARK - general fiction about an older, affluent philanthropist in Dallas who dabbles in the lives of the unfortunate but also has a dangerously cruel side. There are several characters in this book that I really love, and I hope it succeeds.
3. Of course, the next book to follow up my current release, TENDER, Book One of the Trelawneys of Williamsburg. This will be about the sister of TENDER's Rachel, and will be set in Williamsburg and Philadelphia in 1775-1776.
1. BEAST - a book about a woman dealing with grief, who loses her dog, and then he comes back to life as kind of a superhero. She becomes a sort of graphic novel kickass vigilante in her 50s. Probably need to come up with a better plot summary than that.
2. LAKESIDE PARK - general fiction about an older, affluent philanthropist in Dallas who dabbles in the lives of the unfortunate but also has a dangerously cruel side. There are several characters in this book that I really love, and I hope it succeeds.
3. Of course, the next book to follow up my current release, TENDER, Book One of the Trelawneys of Williamsburg. This will be about the sister of TENDER's Rachel, and will be set in Williamsburg and Philadelphia in 1775-1776.
Anne Meredith
Same old-guy-on-a-mountain advice I scoffed at 25 years ago: Read.
Read everything, but read more of the kind of writing you want to write. If you want to write fiction, don't waste a lot of precious time reading trash (even it is a fluke mega-bestseller that came from a Twilight fan fiction board ... not that I'm jealous, much...)
You will realize someday that there are many, many, many truly great books you will never have time to read in this life. Don't waste time on junk. (There are many great genre books; don't mistake this advice as dismissing romance, sci-fi, westerns, etc. Those can be great as well.)
If you're still young enough to be in school, take Latin. I wish I had. It will give you an excellent vocabulary foundation.
Read everything, but read more of the kind of writing you want to write. If you want to write fiction, don't waste a lot of precious time reading trash (even it is a fluke mega-bestseller that came from a Twilight fan fiction board ... not that I'm jealous, much...)
You will realize someday that there are many, many, many truly great books you will never have time to read in this life. Don't waste time on junk. (There are many great genre books; don't mistake this advice as dismissing romance, sci-fi, westerns, etc. Those can be great as well.)
If you're still young enough to be in school, take Latin. I wish I had. It will give you an excellent vocabulary foundation.
Anne Meredith
So much. Although it differs for each person depending on why they became a writer, for me it's a long list:
1. I know I'm being true to myself.
2. I feel I'm answering a call from God to do what I'm supposed to do while I'm on this earth.
3. I can feel like I make a difference.
4. Even though commercial fiction disappears by the day, we all hope to be Harper Lee, changing so many hearts that we know we mattered while we were here.
5. You can create something that no one else on earth is able to conceive of and create.
6. It can be deeply rewarding. Not always financially, but there's the potential for that. (If you're just in it for the money, get out now and manage a hedge fund. You and the world will both be happier.)
7. You're a little different, and people find that interesting.
8. You get to enjoy, celebrate that difference. You can become known for your cheesy berets or your great cowboy boots or that you play in a band, or whatever other eccentricity you love.
The list could go on all dayl
1. I know I'm being true to myself.
2. I feel I'm answering a call from God to do what I'm supposed to do while I'm on this earth.
3. I can feel like I make a difference.
4. Even though commercial fiction disappears by the day, we all hope to be Harper Lee, changing so many hearts that we know we mattered while we were here.
5. You can create something that no one else on earth is able to conceive of and create.
6. It can be deeply rewarding. Not always financially, but there's the potential for that. (If you're just in it for the money, get out now and manage a hedge fund. You and the world will both be happier.)
7. You're a little different, and people find that interesting.
8. You get to enjoy, celebrate that difference. You can become known for your cheesy berets or your great cowboy boots or that you play in a band, or whatever other eccentricity you love.
The list could go on all dayl
Anne Meredith
Writer's block is the wrong term; it's more of a drought period. The goal is to keep watering your creativity, refilling your well with activities that feed your creativity. Whether it's traveling, taking walks, visiting artistic places nearby (museums, art stores, resale and nostalgia shops chock full of stuff that will trigger memories you'd forgotten, there's a whole industry related to this), spoil your muse. Adore her. Hang on her every word.
With that said, the best advice is to develop a routine of writing every day at a certain time (or whatever works for you, but every day), consider yourself a professional, and show up. Sometimes the muse is speaking to you when you don't realize it. If you keep writing even when you don't feel like it, ideas WILL come to you. Annie Lamott says, give yourself permission to write a shitty draft. The art shows up in the rework, sometimes even more so than the original ideas.
Also taking walks can help power through this. Stephen King, probably our most prolific writer, touts the benefits of daily walks (as he says, as long as you don't get in the path of a swerving van).
With that said, the best advice is to develop a routine of writing every day at a certain time (or whatever works for you, but every day), consider yourself a professional, and show up. Sometimes the muse is speaking to you when you don't realize it. If you keep writing even when you don't feel like it, ideas WILL come to you. Annie Lamott says, give yourself permission to write a shitty draft. The art shows up in the rework, sometimes even more so than the original ideas.
Also taking walks can help power through this. Stephen King, probably our most prolific writer, touts the benefits of daily walks (as he says, as long as you don't get in the path of a swerving van).
Anne Meredith
I've stopped relying on inspiration, but Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way offers some great ideas on creativity. I like listening to classical music when I'm writing, especially Mozart and Vivaldi, which seem to stimulate my imagination. Also, traveling to new places and meeting new people inspires me. (The older I get, the more I try to avoid watching the news.)
Anne Meredith
I visited Colonial Williamsburg in the early '90s after having wanted to visit since I was a teenager, and I was inspired by all the stories there from many periods of our history.
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