Category: How To and Tips
HALF THE WORK, TWICE THE FUN? What You Need To Know About Collaborating
HALF THE WORK, TWICE THE FUN? (What You Need To Know About Collaborating) By Christina Hamlett “Let’s get the kids together and put on a show in the old barn!” This plucky trope emerged in the 1930s movies of Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland. To this day, it perpetuates the myth that any disparate group […]
Things You Didn’t Know About Writing What We Know: Louisa Morgan
Writing What We Know The oldest bit of writing advice I know of is to “write what you know.” It’s still good advice, though a bit long in the tooth! It will serve you best if you understand what it is you know that will interest readers. It’s important to be aware that what may […]
A Flash of Joy and a Little bit of Wonder
A few years ago while I was writing my first novel, on my way home from hot yoga, my husband informed me that he saw the purple flash during Shavasana. “It was incredible. Magical even, if you believe in that,” he said. “I was totally centered and grounded but felt this lightness of being.” He […]
Where Does Your Inspiration Come From?
I’m often asked where I get the ideas for my novels. It isn’t an easy question to answer because for most authors, me included, ideas come from the oddest places. Once, it was seeing an old, historic wall being repaired. The workers were sanding the brick and dust was swirling around them. I was taken […]
Meaningful Consent
Meaningful Consent “Is it okay if I include this in my book?” I asked Owen Rivers this question dozens of times during the two-and-a-half years it took me to write my book, “The Memory Thief and the Secrets Behind How We Remember – A Medical Mystery.” Of course, I asked everyone else I spoke with […]
My Journey Into Publishing by Laikyn Meng
My Journey Into Publishing Laikyn Meng I wrote my first book in the summer of 2010, about a teenage girl who loses her sister and finds a way to love through the pain. When I started writing, I didn’t know how to navigate or expand my world to learn the knowledge needed. I continued writing, […]
When Readers Don’t “Get” Your Book: On The Delicate Subject of Difficult Books
When Readers Don’t “Get” Your Book: On The Delicate Subject of Difficult Books By Lindsay Merbaum “I had to actually read every word of your book!” is a comment I’ve now heard a few times in response to my debut experimental queer feminist horror novel The Gold Persimmon, (is that enough of a mouthful for […]
On Research: When Enough Is Enough
Since my forthcoming book, My Secret to Keep, is historical, I thought writing an essay on when to stop researching would be fun. This is pretty bold of me since I’m still researching a book that was published two years ago. But here goes. When Enough Is Enough But before I start, I want to […]
The Present Absent and the Figurative Literal: A Craft Lesson from Marilynne Robinson’s Classic Novel Housekeeping
The Present Absent and the Figurative Literal: A Craft Lesson from Marilynne Robinson’s Classic Novel Housekeeping Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson has been hailed a classic, defining the contemporary novel for writers and readers of our time. First published in 1980, the book, a debut novel, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and […]
The Inspiration Behind The Shell and the Octopus
by Rebecca Stirling This story did not begin as a memoir. It did not even begin as my own story. I was asked by a close family friend, after his fourth bout with cancer, to write his story, because I knew it the best. Charlie is now a character in my memoir. He inspired my […]
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