This week's writing exercise is simply a link to a fabulous article, an interview in Brainpickings with the Pulitzer-winning author, Jennifer Egan (A Visit from the Goon Squad), about the weird and wonderful place we go when we write. Check it out here. You may relate!
Friday, September 30, 2016
Friday, September 23, 2016
Metaphors in Your Story--What Are They, How to Use Them, When to Use Them
I'll never forget the first year of my MFA. I had a great adviser, a well-published writer, who was also a minimalist. I am not. I love
lyrical prose. So we were an odd match that turned out to be one of the
best parts of my expensive education.
As my adviser, Rebecca required me to send her a packet of new writing every two weeks. She would read the pages and mark them up, then return them to me. her handwriting was atrocious but her comments were stellar. She didn't hold back. If she loved something, she raved. If she hated it, she said that too. She assumed, rightly so, that at this point in my writing career I was past coddling. I just wanted the straight truth.
As my adviser, Rebecca required me to send her a packet of new writing every two weeks. She would read the pages and mark them up, then return them to me. her handwriting was atrocious but her comments were stellar. She didn't hold back. If she loved something, she raved. If she hated it, she said that too. She assumed, rightly so, that at this point in my writing career I was past coddling. I just wanted the straight truth.
Friday, September 16, 2016
Can You Use Both First and Third Person Narrators in Your Novel?
A
few of my private clients are playing with the idea of using both first
person and third person narrators in their novels or memoirs. It's a
fairly radical approach to storytelling but not impossible. I've gotten
the question enough times in the past weeks--the idea must be
trending!--that I wanted to address it in this blog.
Friday, September 9, 2016
Refresh Your Writing Brain (and Inspire Your Book) with an Image Board This Week
Writers gather around the big classroom conference table. It's the
first evening of my weeklong writing retreat. I ask each writer to
grab a stack of magazines and begin tearing out photos. The room gets
quiet as everyone moves into their image brains.
Monday, September 5, 2016
Finding Close Readers--How to Be Smart with Feedback on Your Manuscript
Feedback is a tricky process. Lots of danger if you choose
feedback partners that have something to prove--they're smart, literary,
better than you could ever be. Or if you exchange with readers who
just don't put in the effort, time, attention. Both extremes can wear a
writer out, best case. Worse case, they can cause you to lose faith in
your book.
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