Tag: Pauline Shen

Nonfiction, Writing

Selecting Character Names

Pauline Shen
Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com

How do you select character names? If you’ve ever wondered this, consider first why you’re asking. It’s not like you have zero ideas of names to choose. Do you have a name in mind that you aren’t confident slapping down on the page? Maybe it’s the name of your childhood friend or a departed relative. Did you think about using a name you heard at school or work and thought it was rather unique but years later you’re unsure if it’s usable? The problem boils down to whether it’s a good fit.

The fit has to do with your character, the plot, and your intended audience. There’s a lot riding on a name, so it’s not just an arbitrary decision. You’re placing a label on a fictional being who represents an archetype, role-model, or possibly a new icon (i.e. Harry _ _ _ _ _ _ ). Which reminds me, you may only need a first name. Depending on your genre and plot, however, you may need to select surnames. And if you’re going for realism, this can be a huge conundrum.

So now that we’ve gotten closer to defining the problem, do I have an answer? Well, not exactly. I have some guidelines that I follow and I’ll offer some anecdotes along the way.

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Interviews

Interview with E.J. Nash

Pauline Shen

In today’s post, E.J. Nash tells us how she fits her writing into a packed schedule, gives advice to new writers on creating an internet presence, and talks about… Hawaiian pizza! (Hint: it’s writing-related) Check out her author bio:

Photographer Trina Koster

E.J. Nash holds a bachelor’s degree from The University of Western Ontario in Creative Writing and English Language & Literature, and a master’s degree in Information Studies from McGill University. Her work has been published by CBC, The Globe and Mail, Nature, Woman’s World, and in various literary magazines. She is an American-Canadian writer & librarian currently located in Ottawa.

E.J., you write a variety of fiction, non-fiction, and performance pieces. How do you arrange time for writing?

I like to get up early and write as much as I can before work, and I’ll write on my lunch break if the planets align. In the evening my brain has turned into a potato, so that’s when I crash in bed.

Downloading Google Docs on my phone has been a game changer. Most of my writing is done on my phone, and I edit on my computer. Writing on my phone gives me the flexibility to write anywhere! Plus, I’m not scared about losing my documents since they’re all hosted in the cloud.

Do you prefer to read books in e-book or physical book format? What are you reading these days? Which contemporary authors do you recommend checking out?

I read both print books and eBooks. Most of my day is spent in front of a screen, and I can feel my retinas crying for mercy, so it’s nice to look at a print book. On the other hand, some of the books I read are only available as eBooks, so I’m happy to scroll to my heart’s content.

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Interviews

Interview with Eileen Cook

Pauline Shen

In this post, we welcome author, speaker, and mentor Eileen Cook. She shares an abundance of helpful (and heartful) writing advice as well as a glimpse into what it was like when she first started out as a budding writer. Check out Eileen’s author bio:

Photo courtesy of Eileen Cook

Eileen Cook, author, speaker, and mentor lives in Vancouver, British Columbia. Her books are published with HMH, Simon and Schuster, and HarperCollins. Cook’s recent titles include You Owe Me a Murder, One Lie Too Many, and With Malice. Under the pen name Kate MacIntosh, she’s written a historical novel, The Champagne Letters. People Magazine chose this book as a December 2024 Best New Book saying: “this fun, fizzy novel is delicious.” She received the John Spray Award in 2018 for best mystery in Canada with her novel The Hanging Girl/One Lie Too Many. Her books have been optioned for film and TV, although she is still waiting a chance to walk the red carpet.

Eileen, you’re the author of several contemporary, middle grade, and thriller novels, as well as multiple non-fiction guidebooks for new writers. Are you working on a manuscript now? What can you tell us about your work in progress?

My most recent book, The Champagne Letters, was a big change for me as it was both adult and a dual timeline historical. It just came out in December 2024 with Gallery Books (Simon and Schuster) under a pen name to help brand it as different than other things I’ve written. At long last, a chance for my historical nerd side to come out and use all those random facts I’ve been gathering for years!

Even though the book just came out, I am already wading into another manuscript. I am the happiest when I have a book on the go. The current book is also a dual timeline with a character in the present who is traveling to England after a death. It’s still very muddy and unclear how it will unspool, but I’m enjoying doing a bunch of research and seeing where it may go.

Eileen, you’ve got a wealth of experience with writing-for-publication. Tell us a bit about how it felt when you first started sending out manuscripts. What drove your decision to continue writing and what were your next steps? At what point did you begin speaking to audiences and mentoring others?

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Candid Talks, Writing

What’s the point …of Submitting to Literary Journals?

Pauline Shen

I saw this question on a discussion forum some time ago, and thought it was a good one. The person who posed it was just starting out as a writer and unsure about navigating all the different publication outlets. Should a writer invest time and resources in short stories and micro fiction for the purpose of submitting to journals? Is this a wise choice for a writer whose ultimate goal is to finish a novel? Can you make a living from submitting smaller works of fiction? What, really, is the point of having your work appear in those little journals anyways? Why not just go for the full manuscript from the beginning and skip all the rest?

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Candid Talks

Making Room for Reading

Pauline Shen

Reading is an imperative activity for a writer. Tackle that unread pile! I’ve got three tips to share that will help you make more room in your week for reading. When you see my explanation for each, you’ll notice that all three tips meld into each other like one super-hack. I hope this will assist you in reaching your reading goals.

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Interviews

Interview with T.L. Tomljanovic

Pauline Shen

In this post, we’re hearing from T.L. Tomljanovic, freelance writer and communications specialist located in British Columbia, and member of the Federation of BC Writers. We’ll hear about T.L. Tomljanovic’s writing journey, recent publications, and some advice for new writers on ways to branch out and become part of the larger writing community.

You have a background as a freelance communications consultant, and then you got into writing fiction more recently. How long have you been writing overall and what made you decide to explore fiction?

I’ve been writing professionally for about 20 years. My first paid gig was for a Calgary publisher where I worked as a photo researcher. Outside my usual nine to five, I researched and wrote children’s non-fiction books to spec meaning I had a very clear set of guidelines—word count, reading level, chapter headings, etc. I always wanted to write fiction—I was and still am a voracious reader—but my fear of failure paralyzed. It took the bigger fear of the pandemic lockdown in 2020 to spur me into action. I wrote a story about a goat hunter and Carousel Magazine published it.

Your fictional stories span multiple genres—literary, science fiction, horror, and so on. What inspires your stories and what are your go-to strategies to ensure that you can approach your work-in-progress with enthusiasm?

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BONUS Post

Jam Drop Cookies (A.K.A. The easiest kitchen cupboard recipe, ever!)

Pauline Shen

Just to be clear, this is not a food blog. It’s a bonus post. I am sharing one of my tried-and-true recipes as a thank you for reading my blog. That is all.

Hot jam cookies right out of the oven.

This is my go-to recipe for any occasion. My friends and neighbours love these cookies. I get requests for them, and I even give them out as gifts. The funny part: they’re pretty-much a “kitchen cupboard” recipe. You can get fancy with equipment and decorations or just mix them up by hand and serve as a basic thumbprint cookie. You can substitute, add ingredients, or mix-and-match, and they will still turn out cute and delicious! It’s an excellent beginner recipe. There are only a couple areas where you could go wrong, and I’ll be flagging those as we go along. Let’s jam!

Ingredients:

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Writing

Returning to a Work-in-Progress – How to

Pauline Shen

One of my university professors used to say that he found it easier and more productive to walk away from an essay while he was mid-sentence with an unfinished paragraph on the page. His logic was that his brain would pick up the exact train of thought that he had been working with in the previous sitting so that his fingers could simply continue typing the remainder of that sentence and paragraph without much hesitation. Now, that may work for essays, but I’m not certain that it applies to writing scenes. I mean, how annoying is it to have your reading interrupted right when there’s a critical junction in the story? Or you’ve just gotten into a movie and the power cuts out? What a letdown! Creative writing is much the same; there’s some kind of bubble that bursts when disruptions occur—including when it comes time to shift attention to a more pressing task. Leaving the comfort of your home office to attend a dental appointment, for example.

Photo by Mikhail Nilov on Pexels.com
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