Category: How To and Tips
If Brevity is the Soul of Wit, Can I Ever Write a Funny Book?
By Audrey Burges My writing group’s conversation started, as it often does, with a question: can I write a funny novel? The topic started because I had been trying and failing to expand my satire writing into a full book. My most recent attempt to write a “lighthearted romantic comedy” took a hard left toward […]
HOW I KEPT GOING IN THE FACE OF REJECTION, AND HOW YOU CAN TOO
Elizabeth Breck It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. I had written a novel—a murder mystery. I had gotten a literary agent in less than two months, which is a superhuman feat as anyone who has attempted to get a literary agent will attest. We edited the novel, and then […]
How to be a Nose for Characters
Near my home, a world-class vineyard and winery nestles into a pastoral valley limned by blue mountains. Yes, Virginia, more than fifty award-winning vineyards make the central part of our state a destination for oenophiles. At Keswick Vineyards, there’s a popular annual competition in which wine club members are invited into the “sacred” cellars. There, […]
How I Found My Ideal Reader, My Agent
When I finished the final draft of the manuscript that became my debut novel If, Then (Random House, 2019), I had a lot of pie in the sky aspirations. I wanted a fantastic agent, a talented editor at an imprint I admired, and also something that felt crazy to even say out loud, readers. It […]
Humor Is Not an Official Literary Genre
Humor Is Not an Official Literary Genre by Vanessa A. Newman, M.S. Hogwash to that, I say emphatically! Can’t the written word engender laughter? Or would opponents argue that eliciting guffaws is simply a function of entertainment and thus not literary in nature. Psychology Today claims laughter is fundamental, but the setting is critical. In […]
Writing From The Underworld
Cassandra L. Thompson When I finally maneuvered my way into the writing world with my debut gothic fantasy novel, The Ancient Ones, I was graced with several opportunities to sit down and interview with different people. While I received many of the same questions – why vampires? Why ancient mythology? Perhaps the most frequently asked […]
Finding Your Voice After 50
4 things you can (and should) start doing today With the completion of my manuscript, I closed my laptop, celebrated with a glass of Chardonnay, and sat back, prepared for the inevitable challenge of the Next Step on the road to publication—finding the elusive literary agent. For those of you not living in my bookish world, […]
Can Stories Change the World? By Sheila Athens
My favorite quote about writing is from playwright Tom Stoppard: “Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” I’ve always understood this quote to mean that the stories we write can change the world. In some cases, those changes are […]
Advice on Writing Advice
I remember as a child my mother listing a whole bunch of first lines from bestselling books. “The primroses were over,” she announced theatrically, referring to the opening to Watership Down. “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way,” she said, quoting from Anna Karenina. I thought she’d come […]
Longing To Be Read
Kathleen M. Rodgers A young man with curly hair and a round cherub face approaches and thrust a book at me. “Why haven’t you read my book?” he demands. His voice is full of rage, his expression one of disgust and disappointment. I’ve just climbed out of a car, and I’m preparing to close the […]
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