Category: How To and Tips
Fried Mosquitoes and a Cup of Hot Tea: From Piano Lady to Picture Book Author
by Paulette Bochnig Sharkey My first book contract and my first grandchild arrived together. In October 2018, I was in Wasilla, Alaska, staying with my daughter during her last month of pregnancy while her husband was away on an overseas military assignment. Operating on Michigan time, I woke up early my first Monday morning and opened […]
Drawing Inspiration from Life
When I started writing my first novel almost twenty years ago I had no idea what direction my writing would take. Initially Slur had a chic lit feel to it but as I headed towards the halfway stage I felt that the novel wasn’t really going anywhere. I put it to one side for a […]
The Write Cocktail for Your Book
There’s doubt that Ernest Hemingway actually said, “Write drunk and edit sober.” He denies that he ever mixed his pleasure with his work. He was a professional, and writing was his work. Writing drunk, Hemingway alluded, was something only William Faulkner did. Twentieth century author shade aside, the accuracy of the quote is just a […]
How To Handle Feedback On Your Writing
Let’s be honest here and say the only feedback a writer really enjoys getting is along these lines: I’m in awe of how clever you are and I wouldn’t change a word. But… We all know that feedback is vitally important. Every writer needs it. Even the Stephen Kings and Ann Tylers of this world. […]
Unusual Writing Help
By now, if you’re a writer or an aspiring writer, you’ve heard all the advice about what it takes to get your story down on paper. Write consistently, plow through a crappy first draft, toughen up and learn to take criticism and rejection, read a lot of other people’s books. But people don’t talk as […]
A Letter To My Unpublished Self
Dear Andie, Wow, who knew writing a letter to your unpublished self would be so hard? I’m feeling many things as I sit at my computer and think back on your life as an unpublished writer. Immediately I’m tearing up, and there’s a lump in my throat. Why? Because little one, the next ten years […]
One Dangerous Liberty
We who write stories are damn brave. We spin out people with whom we live in almost every moment of our lives. We create their world. They create ours. We take them places. They take us. We live with them, fuss over them, argue with them, let ourselves be surprised by them. We dive into […]
Rhythm Of Writing
I remember 1981. It was an important year for me for two reasons – I started kindergarten, and my parents ordered cable TV. Instead of being at home all day, I now joined my sister in that mysterious tan brick building that smelled of ditto ink and chalk. Instead of three local stations and PBS, […]
On Inspiration
Inspiration – there is no such thing as ‘standard’ but that’s okay Inspiration is defined as ‘the process of being mentally stimulated to do something, especially something creative’ and ‘someone or something giving you the idea to do something’; which leaves you with an extremely broad scope for where ideas can come from. This can […]
Writing And Performing A TEDX Talk
Do you dream about a TEDxTalk? Go inside the process of writing and performing a TED Talk with author Polo Tate At the time of my TEDxTALK audition, I had a birds-eye view of what I had hoped would be a majestic “idea worth spreading.” I wanted to talk about how to find true fulfilment in life—something poignant that took me an […]
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