Craft Advice with Rene Denfeld

On deleting old work, rereading books, asking our brain for help, discernment, interconnection, and the most important question. Plus, a prompt for writing about trauma.

Intimate conversations with our greatest heart-centered minds.

One of the prisons where Rene works. She says: “I've gotten some great writing done outside those walls.”

I can’t think of an author with greater writing chops than Rene Denfeld. Lyrical, tender, precise, astoundingly breathtakingly beautiful prose knitted together with edge-of-your-seat suspense and drive. And so much wisdom and compassion woven in. A master storyteller. I feel so lucky that I was able to ask Rene how she pulls this off.

If you missed last week’s conversation with Rene, you can check it out here.

Our three lucky winners of an autographed copy of Sleeping Giants are Matthew Long, David Spinks, and Wendy Chapman. I’m so happy for all!

We made another beautiful monthly donation to The DeTommaso Dogs. Thank you gigantically to all the paid subscribers who help get so many dogs off the streets!

Where do you write?

Everywhere. My problem with a lot of craft advice out there is you can find books or articles that are written by, for instance, men who have wives who take care of their kids while they write. That's a completely different situation than a lot of us are in.

Whenever I mentor writers, I say, “you need to find out what works for you. What works for Stephen King or someone else might not work for you.” As we get older, we get comfortable with who we are, and that means we start having respect for our own options.

For me, because I'm single mom and I work in justice, I take my trusty laptop with me. My first novel was written in jail visiting rooms. It was written while outside a prison. I would pull over on the side of the road when I was way out in the boonies trying to find a witness who lived in a meth camp in the woods. Whenever I could, I would pull over and write for ten or fifteen minutes. I've written outside therapy rooms where I’m waiting for my kid, outside the dentist’s office.

I do also write at home. I try and pick a chair that’s comfortable. I got in the habit of waking up a few hours before the kids to get extra writing time. I’m not fussy about where the writing happens.

Always on a laptop? Or do use a notebook?