Category: Being a Writer
Literary Friendships
We have always felt fortunate to have found each other. Ever since meeting as young English teachers in rural Japan, when we talked of our literary ambitions over bowls of noodles and bottles of Asahi, we have shared both the uphill struggles and delightful discoveries of each other’s creative journeys. But we only recently realised […]
On mirror neurons and Schrödinger’s cat: writing as exploration
Some explore to answer questions. Others explore to ask them. The map is ridiculously simplified, as the three-block walk from the hotel has proven. I cram it in my pocket and turn into the narrow alley that apparently doesn’t exist, stepping willingly into uncertainty. No matter where I end up, I will have seen that […]
Researching Burnt Norton
Fifteen years ago Caroline moved with her husband and seven children and stepchildren to Burnt Norton, the house made famous by TS Eliot in the first of his ʻFour Quartetsʼ. Very much influenced by Eliotʼs theme of time and redemption, she started to research the strange and tragic history of the Keyt family who owned […]
Growing a Thick Skin by K. A. Laity
Dorothy Parker’s work may be awash with cynicism, but so often she is right on the money. In her wistful poem “Observation” she considers doing better with her life—getting to bed early, abstaining from riotous overindulgence and undoubtedly completing the work for overdue deadlines. But in the end the famous wit concludes, But I shall […]
Learning to Fall
Between summer and winter, we are in fall, a season I have found particularly advantageous for writing. The earth tilts away from the sun, our light source. Yet though the days grow shorter, the light appears longer across the ground. With this particular slant of light we begin to turn inward like plants do. We […]
The Silver Lining on the Bipolar Cloud
In middle school I wanted to be a writer. The only other job that appealed was archaeology, though not just any archeology. I had no interest in digging up Saxon villages or reconstructing Iron Age forts. I wanted to be an Egyptologist. Egyptology and fiction had more in common that it might appear. Both engaged […]
Researching Kipling and his Sister
I loved everything about the research for Kipling & Trix: old letters in archives, childhood photographs, biographies, memoirs, histories of the Boer War—but most of all I loved the license to roam. Not just permission but an absolute demand for travel, tracing lives passed between India and Britain. For it was my plan to follow […]
Whatever your Dreams…
Roz Morris has been a good friend of Women Writers, Women Books and written for us before. We invited her to give us an update on what she was doing, not our usual guest essay. – Anora McGaha, Editor In May I released the second book in my Nail Your Novel series. Fans have been […]
You’re a Writer. Now Act Like One!
My entire life had been in a single large city. I loved the important hustle of the daytime and the somewhat dangerous excitement of the night. Art and fabulous food fed my deeper cravings. Still, I always felt that my forever life was waiting for me somewhere drastically different. On impulse, I moved to San Diego, […]
Writing Fiction, Building blocks
I expect I am the same as many writers in that I love writing, but I don’t find it easy. Some days it feels almost impossible to get the words down, and yet, if you are to deliver a novel that is exactly what you must do. A professional produces even when they feel as […]
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