Lisa Young

In this  Hollywood , art is all "lies, connivance and darkness."   Kindle Edition (Biblioasis, 2016) Scrolling through the books on Biblioasis'  website ,  The Camera Always Lies , a novel by Hugh Hood, caught my eye. It's described as a story about " Hollywood politics and one woman’s struggle to survive them." I was intrigued, not only by the promise of an insider's view, but to boot, the main character is a woman. Sold. (Not to mention Hugh Hood's bio, which in itself is impressive.) I read the novel over two evenings and thoroughly enjoyed it.  Set in 1966-67, this is a very dark look at  Hollywood  filmmaking. Love and Art are all but extinguished in this Holly-land. The greed, lust and misogyny are palpable. Hugh Hood strikes the right balance by injecting humour into the mix. Even the truly "bad guys" are funny. And the overall statement Hood is making about art versus commercialism/careerism elevates ...

There's a certain urgency to share my work as soon as I've written it. My first reader is my husband, Mike. I'm looking to see whether he thinks it works overall. He'll point out any weak spots and do a quick proofread for me too. Sometimes I read my work aloud to him in the kitchen while dinner is cooking. The work I show Mike might still be in its early stages, but it feels complete in some way – enough that I think I have something. I need to have a first reader who appreciates that it's still a work in progress. Mike and I are a team. If something's off – I'll go back and fix it up and then have him read it again. We'll go back and forth this way. A first reader should have good judgment. Is a first reader a kind of gatekeeper? I think so. They're the ones who stop you from going forward when you're headed for disaster. Who isn't a good first reader? Someone who can't articulate what's wrong with a certain phrase or...

River rocks - pick one and tell its story. I was recently away at a poetry retreat in Burnt River. A wonderful getaway that turned out to be the best vacation I've had in a long time  –  thanks to the finest and purest river in Ontario and great poets for company and inspiration.  After so much immersion in poetry, I came home feeling refreshed and oddly gung-ho to switch gears and start writing some fiction. In what ways do poetry and fiction overlap?  Here are some poetry tools and ways to transfer some of these tools into the world of fiction.  Some Poetry Tools Some Fiction Tools  Make sure you include concrete objects.  Concrete objects expand to amount to a setting.  (Some poets say: location, location, location! So the difference here is perhaps a matter of magnitude.) Try to write about an "occasion"  –  however small it might be. Oc...

This Christmas I'm giving my niece and nephews short festive tales by yours truly. Stories as gifts? Why not? Certainly you cut down on your shopping time and increase your writing time. Writing for children is exciting new territory for me. Of course my stories' main characters happen to be about the same age as my niece and nephews and have the same interests. Before I began writing, I made lists of all the exciting events, activities, and customs associated with Christmas/winter. Then I made lists of all the ideas, questions, skills and facts associated with my niece and nephews' favourite hobbies. I then wrote two separate stories  –  one for the girl and one for the boys based on the most intriguing items from the lists I'd made. I never would have tried writing for children if I wasn't an Aunt...and I'm really glad I did try. It feels like a breakthrough of some sort. It pays to experiment with different genres! Even if I don't succeed in ent...

Where do ideas come from? Woody Allen apparently has a million ideas coming to him 24/7. If one idea gets some feet and starts running – well, he has a screenplay in no time. Ideas must be lining up right outside his brain waiting to get in and get their chance. I’ve never been one to buy into that whole “what if” exercise – the famous writer’s tool.“What if” never yields a thing for me. But it’s been a while since I tried – so let’s see. A Brainstorming Session of “What Ifs”: What if the floor lamp keeled over and the bulb busted and glass went everywhere? I’d have to get up and clean it and I’d probably end up going to bed as soon as I was done cleaning up. What if time stopped? I’d be stuck living a Monday night for the rest of my life. What if this house started growing and an attic appeared and I went up into it and found a world where everything was just as I wanted it? What if sports were banned? What if TV were banned? What if it were illegal to go to a movie?...