Advice for New Writers Archives

Archive for the ‘Advice for New Writers’ Category

Lovable Predictability: The Pleasures and Challenges of Writing a Children’s Fiction Series

by Alex Woolf

“Why do we always have to reinvent the wheel?” my editor once asked me.

When a new book is launched, it’s like introducing a stranger to a largely disinterested world. Potential readers know nothing about its characters or the kind of plot they might expect. Publishers are forced to spend a great deal of money on marketing to give the book a comforting, pseudo-familiar feel. The title and cover design will be reminiscent of other, similar books that readers might already have enjoyed.

Crowdpublishing

by Diane Morrison

Everyone says that indie publishing is the wave of the future. Avoiding gatekeepers, who are often prejudiced against particular ideas or demographics, and putting your work out there to see if it will sink or swim on its own, puts the power (and the money) back in the hands of the writers. I had an unusual idea and format that I realized would have difficulty finding a home because of its experimental nature, so I though I would give it a try.

Words Out of Time: Building a Better World Through Etymology

by Ken Pelham

Your stiff-upper-lipped hero, Professor Jenkins, frustrated with the chicanery of Air Captain Hamm, pounds the table and shouts, “Good heavens, man! The scoundrel has hatched yet another outrageous boondoggle!”

Boondoggle. This is where your narrative gets stuck in the etymological weeds.

Rebound Novels

by Paul Jessup

Novels are like long, committed relationships. They take months to years of your life, and they require complete and utter devotion to their singular purpose. Certainly, there is something to living inside of a novel, breathing inside of it, thinking about it every moment of your day. It’s an all-consuming thing, as exhausting as it is rewarding.

Two Simple Rules of Editing

by E. D. E. Bell

As a former engineer, data analyst, strategic advisor, and manager who entered the fiction writing and fiction editing world not too far apart and not so long ago, I’ve had to come up to speed quickly on concepts and best practices that a lot of editors my age have been practicing a long time.

The Productivity Monkey

by Deborah Walker

I don’t find productivity to be a one size fits all discipline. Sometimes a theory or technique just doesn’t resonate for me. For example, I’ve never got on with the Pomodoro technique, but some authors love it. I listened to a podcast recently where a motivational speaker was very insistent that if you don’t have goals then you can’t achieve anything worthwhile. Goals aren’t for me. I’d rather define processes rather than goals. I’ll write every weekday rather than I’ll finish a novel in a year. Many productivity experts swear by meditation, but I don’t care for it. The best advice for techniques is to try them on for size and see if they fit.

More Writerly Than Thou

by Sandra M. Odell

I have struggled with the titanic highs and crushing lows of severe mental illness and PTSD most of my life, yet nothing quite prepared me for the psyche shitstorm that followed the release of my second collection, “Godfall & Other Stories. ”

The Ultra-Novelist

by Hunter Liguore

When it comes to writing, especially the novel, we can never give up! We’re essentially running our own ‘ultra-marathon.’ Looking at a runner who will traverse 100 miles over 30 hours, we must see the significant amount of training that went into this. Considering the above scenario, this ultra-runner must’ve spent at least half to a full year of deliberate planning/training just for this one race.

The X Factor

By Annette Siketa

Picture this – a searing Australian summer, roads melting, birds dropping out of trees, an overexcited thirty-six-year-old daughter, and me – her mum, trying to keep cool in every respect. And the reason for said daughter’s excitement? A private meeting with David Duchovny.

Advice for the Invariable Moment when You Decide to Quit

by Filip Wiltgren

I’m a quitter.

I’ve quit school five times, quit jobs, quit my freelancing career, quit clubs, sports, diets, pretty much everything except relationships, which get quit for me. In short, I’m an expert at quitting.