That’s what love is: learning to love what your lover loves.—Greg Brown, husband of Iris DeMent Mama taught me to tell my truth.—Iris DeMent, wife of Greg Brown Your manuscript owns you. This might not seem obvious at first, but it is a fact that every writer (eventually) comes to… Read more“14 Ways to Love What Your Manuscript Loves”
Tag: Fiction Writing Advice
6 Reasons Why Writing Is Coming Home
Sometimes we travel for my husband’s work, and although we all enjoy the thrill of the open road and the excitement of escaping housework and chores and the incessant arguments over who gets the comfortable armchairs, us or the cats, still— It’s always good to get home. What is it… Read more“6 Reasons Why Writing Is Coming Home”
5 Advantages of Re-Reading
I have probably over 2,500 books in my house. Something around 1,500 of them are on the shelves my husband built for me in my office. And most of those books I’ve read—many of them multiple times. I really, really, really love reading. Here’s how to get the most out… Read more“5 Advantages of Re-Reading”
3 Times I Remember Why I Do This Work
Even if [the yeast of intelligence] operates in vain, it remains evolution’s peak. . .: something to enjoy and foster as much as possible; something not to betray by succumbing to despair, however deep the many pits of darkness. —Diana Athill, Stet: An Editor’s Life Sometimes I get so involved… Read more“3 Times I Remember Why I Do This Work”
5 Things A Writer Always Overlooks
You know how you work so hard to get that first draft down on the page? How you sacrifice comfort, companionship and casual entertainment, family time, work time, leisure time, exercise, sleep, nutrition, freedom from toxins, sobriety, eventually your very sanity—all for the sake of that novel? Then you suffer… Read more“5 Things A Writer Always Overlooks”
8 Places to Find Inspiration
You know what’s hard? Sitting at your desk day in and day out, month after month, year after year, trying to come up with fresh and significant angles on life in an imaginary world. After awhile it seems like every character you create spends all their time flipping through random… Read more“8 Places to Find Inspiration”
21 Things You Writers Know that Non-Writers Don’t
What it’s like to be transported to a parallel universe of incandescent vision through your own small words. How it feels to unravel the mystery of all human endeavor into a web of light that pulses delicately in your hands. Everything about your main characters’ childhoods, which were so poignant… Read more“21 Things You Writers Know that Non-Writers Don’t”
13 Ways to Add Depth to Your Genre Novel
If you’ve got a love story, bring in a third party. If you’ve got a thriller, break their tools. If you’ve got sci fi, create unexpected social norms. If you’ve got a fantasy, make reality too hard to cope with. If you’ve got historical fiction, unearth facts no one from… Read more“13 Ways to Add Depth to Your Genre Novel”
Making it matter
Seth Godin doesn’t think you should write a book thinking you’ll make money off it. He’s written thirteen. I’m guessing he might know. But you should watch the video he links to, because it is very cool, and everything Taylor says about teachers can be said about writers. What do… Read more“Making it matter”
Interviewing Millicent Dillon
You ask if a man who wrote as Jane did would be more famous? A man, of course, could not write as she did.—Millicent Dillon Over the course of her illustrious forty-year writing career, Millicent Dillon has won five O. Henry awards and been nominated for a PEN/Faulkner. She has… Read more“Interviewing Millicent Dillon”