Certain words keep writers up at night. They live in the darkest corners of the dictionary and carry with them anxiety and dread. For me, one is particularly ominous. Quitter. Let’s be honest. Writing is swimming upstream with a thousand pounds of hope, expectations, and manuscripts strapped firmly to your back. Publishing is a subjective… Read more »
As authors we are always on the lookout for ways to improve our craft—to help our writing rise above the slush pile and connect with readers. And once it’s in readers’ hands, we want our work to ring true, to stick with people long after they put it down. We read articles, watch webinars, scour… Read more »
As writers, I think we can all agree that copyediting is an important part of the publishing process. We know that if a reader notices an error, it will probably take him out of the lucid dream of reading. Do that enough times, and he’ll sigh with disgust and toss the book/article/essay aside for good…. Read more »
Writers are odd creatures. For many of us, the ideal workday involves being shut away in a room with only a laptop, or pen and paper, rummaging around in our imaginations. Solitude required. Pants optional. So it seems like an undertaking uniquely suited to an extreme introvert. But there is more to this line of… Read more »
It’s every writer’s worst nightmare—staring at a blank notebook page or computer screen with no motivation or inspiration. Feeling completely stuck. Writer’s block is more than just a joke or some kind of “fluke” thing. In fact, some of the most well-known writers in the world have to deal with it from time to time. … Read more »
I’ve always believed that a story idea is a magical butterfly that flutters around and lands on the one person that has the magnificence—that perfect combination of experience, perspective, emotions, heart, mind, and desire—to bring the story to life in such a way that reflects the writer’s soul and captures the reader’s heart. If a… Read more »
When you are writing a memoir, you spend a lot of your time excavating a past that is often elusive. To bring a memory to life on the page, you have to call up all the myriad details that filled it with emotion and meaning at the time, and the full force of any memory… Read more »
I don’t know how other authors of dual timeline novels decided to go that way, but this structure wasn’t my initial intention. I had an idea for a story about a young woman in seventeenth-century Spain, but I eventually realized that I couldn’t let her story begin and end there. I wanted there to be… Read more »
May is Mental Health Awareness Month. One in five U.S. adults live with mental illness, yet it is still a taboo topic in our personal and professional lives. Those with mental illness are often driven to live with their suffering in silence for fear of damaging their relationships and credibility. I have lived with mental… Read more »
We think of inspiration arriving in a flash, a moment where the rabbit appears from the magic hat as if from nowhere. Those creative lightning strikes hit each of us occasionally. We know we can’t rely on their appearance. But what if we could? Creativity exercises foster conditions that make inspirational lightning strikes more likely…. Read more »
