Ready. Set. Novel! is the book for you if you are in search of your next novel idea, or have a hint of a concept but are looking to develop it further before you set fingers to keyboard. Co-authored by Chris Baty, Lindsey Grant and Tavia Stewart-Streit, three of the brains behind National Novel Writing…
Book Review David Morrell is the author of First Blood, the novel in which Rambo was created. In his book The Successful Novelist: A Lifetime of Lessons about Writing and Publishing, he lays down the rules of writing as he understands them. Overwhelmingly, it is a helpful array both for the new writer and the experienced ones….
Book Review Why We Write is a collection of essays from 20 authors*, edited by Meredith Maran. The essays are written by authors who “have written books that sell in the kinds of numbers that make publishers send them flowers and leather-bound first editions. And most importantly, new book contracts.” Maran calls them the successful ones,…
Dani Shapiro’s Still Writing: The Perils and Pleasures of a Creative Life is a gentle companion, filled with a myriad of antidotes that helps the writer on their own personal journey. The book is not a how-to guide in the least. It does not go over grammar, writing a sentence, or the like. It does, however,…
Sometimes keeping the writing engines revving is all about staying inspired. Lately I have been attempting to dip my toes into the pool of finding an agent. The process is a bit harsh to one’s self esteem, and I found myself going back to my finished novel and examining and reexamining it for flaws. This…
“Good artists copy, great artists steal.” ~ Pablo Picasso A woman writes in a secluded room all day and submits her story to workshop the following day. The next week she is blasted for the unoriginality of her work. She ponders on how her work could have been unoriginal when it originated from her isolated…
Sometimes, we have to force ourselves to write, even when we do not want to or worse, when we do not know what to write. (see a previous post on prompts by Moe to get you going there). It is called discipline and habit. At times, even that can seem a little threadbare. At these…
Writing is not always as inspiring as we would like it to be and while I feel our lack of inspiration has a lot to do with boredom I still feel we have control over where our inspiration comes from when it does not automatically come from within. Twelve Places to Look for Inspiration: Blogs…