writing

New blog post by mickleinapickle One Perfect Sentence Posted on behalf of Peter Cox… The prompt this month was to complete “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” in a novel way. In this, you manifestly succeeded In fact, this was arguably the best OPS contest we’ve run so...

Writing is always full of self-doubt, but the first book [Torch] is really full of self-doubt, and it was much more of a struggle to keep the faith. By the time I wrote Wild, I was familiar with that feeling of doubt and self-loathing, so I just thought “Okay, this is how it feels to write a...

Writing is so difficult, that I often feel that writers, having had their hell on earth, will escape all punishment hereafter. Jessamyn West

“If you show someone something you’ve written, you give them a sharpened stake, lie down in your coffin, and say, ‘When you’re ready’”. David Mitchell

New blog post by Claire G More Haste, Less Speed? What Do We Mean by ‘Pace’ And Why Is It Important? We often hear that books are fast-paced, slow burn or ‘saggy in the middle’. In a nutshell, pace is the speed at which a story unfolds (note that this is not the same as the speed at which a...

The only problem with Haiku is that you just get started and then Roger McGough

I just read this blog post by Chuck Wendig (link below) and it sounds like a fun/cool thing for us to do too. List 5 things you’ve learned writing a now completed novel/novella. It doesn’t have to be things about the book, it can be things you learned about yourself, or some interesting tidbit...

“Writing is medicine. It is an appropriate antidote to injury. It is an appropriate companion for any difficult change.” Julia Cameron

Make understandable misunderstandings happen, hook sentence at end of paragraph, and most importantly, personify abstract concepts. state the story idea in one sentence, two max. scene outline -each scene must move the story forward Dialogue: excites, has white spaces (no more than...

New blog post by Jake E Writing as a job Recently, I came across a fiery argument on multiple social media platforms around the topic a writer compensation. On the face of it, it shouldn’t be a hugely controversial topic – work should be paid for – but as with anything opened to mass criticism...

New blog post by AgentPete Welcome to Publishing Year Zero “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness…” wrote authors’ rights activist Charles Dickens as A Tale of Two Cities began its epic unfolding. He could easily have been...

Hello everyone and happy new year! I just wanted to share with you this doc that was posted in my screenwriting group. I know it is more tailored for screenwriting but I found it very useful for my book as well, it builds drama and covers the who, what, why and opposing forces thereby enticing...

Your writing voice is the deepest possible reflection of who you are. The job of your voice is not to seduce or flatter or make well-shaped sentences. In your voice, your readers should be able to hear the contents of your mind, your heart, your soul. Meg Rosoff

Useful tips. 1. “Instead of writing about a character, write from within the character. This means that every way the character describes the world must describe the character’s experience. You and I never walk into the same room as each other. We each see the room through the lens of our own...

I liked this. https://darlingaxe.com/blogs/news/voice-and-pov

New blog post by Rachel McCarron My First Crit Do you remember your first time? Was it exciting? Were you nervous? Did you just want to get it over with? One of the most wonderful of the many wonderful features of the Litopia Colony is The Lab, where writers can go to experiment with their...

The last clementine of xmas. A little gift to start the year right. https://archive.org/details/steering-the-craft-a-twenty-first-century-guide-to-sailing-the-sea-of-story-repr/page/n4/mode/1up

10 Writing Tips from Ursula Le Guin by Joe Bunting | 35 comments Ursula Le Guin is probably best known for her sci-fi and fantasy, but she also wrote poetry, creative nonfiction, and literary fiction. She won numerous awards for her work, and today, we share a few Ursula Le Guin quotes on...

This year's book, at midnight turns to footnote in the next. Terri Guilemets

“One of the disadvantages of literary awards is the fact that authors are writing to please a book award committee, rather than to spread the message of love, tolerance, peace, and serve humanity.” Mouloud Benzadi