Friday, September 13, 2019

Are Your Characters Too Nice, Controlled, Predictable? Here's How to Bring Out the Tension and Make Them Vivid (But Still Not Serial Killers)

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Annie, one of my readers, got surprising feedback from her writer's group.  One of her novel's characters, an abused woman trying t...
Friday, September 6, 2019

Lessons from Margaret Renkl: How One Memoir-Writer Circled Round Family, Nature, and Loss

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How does a memoir writer weave family stories into a larger whole?  This is the perennial challenge.  Unless you already have a fan followi...
Friday, August 30, 2019

When a Writer Describes an Emotion You've Had (Without Quite Realizing It)--Power of a Book's Effect on Its Readers

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Think your writing doesn't matter?  This week's writing exercise is to educate yourself (and inspire yourself) on the effect our wo...
Friday, August 23, 2019

Breakdowns and Breakthroughs--The Sine Wave of Book Writing

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One of my coaching clients, a very skilled writer, wrote me a few weeks ago about the temper tantrum she was having with her book.  It...
Friday, July 19, 2019

When Your Book Wants to Be Something More: The Persistence Required as Your Book Reveals Its Real Story

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One of my long-time students, Linda Zlotnick, recently published her memoir,   Star Sisters.  The core story is about the death of her tw...
Friday, July 12, 2019

Great Resources for Studying Up: On How to Submit Your Manuscript to Agent or Publishers

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One of my blog readers from Europe is preparing to submit her first book to agents and publishers.  She has plans to attend the  Internatio...
Friday, July 5, 2019

How Do You Create Section Breaks--the White Space Pause--in Your Chapters or the Whole Book?

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A great question, simple but important, this came my way from a former student who is working on the first draft of her memoir.  When you...
Friday, June 28, 2019

Is It Too Late? Successful Publishing After Forty, Fifty, Sixty?

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Writers can become successes at any age--we know that, and we know it's the quality and timeliness of their work that makes that succ...
Sunday, June 16, 2019

Behind the Scenes: How One Well-Published Writer Structured Her Memoir

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This week, I'm sharing another great article--very different from the words of Ira Glass, last post, but equally inspiring for anyone w...
Friday, June 14, 2019

Bridging the Gap between Taste and Skill--Ira Glass Wisdom Revisited

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Something must be in the water this week.  Maybe the air.  I'm hearing from discouraged writers, at every stage.  And by serendipity, I...