Welcome to my site. I’m a creative writer based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. My background is in journalism, public media, and consulting to nonprofit organizations. I now devote full-time to writing. I am working on my first novel, a story of family, betrayal, and race. I will be blogging about the tools and processes I follow, and will give previews of some key chapters. Come follow my adventure and that of my protagonist, Alan Rudberg.
As I’ve posted before, Scrivener is my writing environment of choice. I use if for my current book project and for client reports in my consulting business. It’s chief competitor is Ulysses, which I have not used. Writer Chris Rosser uses both and provides this comparative analysis of the two. While portions are a bit… Continue reading Scrivener vs Ulysses
A friend and colleague, Mark Laskowski, a copywriter for WGBH in Boston added some salient thoughts. “Forget yourself (your tastes, predilections and pet peeves), you’re not writing this for you, you’re writing it to persuade donors to take action. Get inside their heads and think about why they do (or would or should ) value… Continue reading More thoughts on fundraising letters
I was asked by one of my followers on Quora last week, “What makes an effective fundraising letter?” I answered: -A strong case that makes readers want to give to you. -A strong lead sentence/paragraph that pulls them into the story -Either an ask or an indication that you are going to ask by the… Continue reading An effective fundraising letter
Earlier, I wrote about the advantages I’ve found using Scrivener, a complete writing environment, rather than a word processing program. Now that I am revising my first draft, I’ve discovered an editing tool that is proving invaluable. I researched several tools before settling on ProWritingAid. Grammarly is considered the industry standard, but the desktop version doesn’t… Continue reading Editing with ProWritingAid
I completed the first draft of my novel, Sins of Omission, two days ago — 74,000 words across sixteen chapters. Now the real work begins. As many a teacher will tell you (less politely), the first draft is drek. My first four pages already look as though a chicken stepped across it after wading in blood. That’s okay. It’s… Continue reading First draft finished; now the work begins
