Category: How To Write
How Do You Maintain Your Writing Discipline?
How do you maintain your writing discipline? This is a question I am often asked. A strict schedule helps. Making a habit helps. For me, it’s writing first thing in the morning. I think it works because I want to write. I want to see the screen fill up with words. I envision a magazine piece, a [...]
Tip #2 For Contributors: Proofread Your Post
Before submitting your guest post to Women Writers, Women Books, always to read over it at least twice to check for errors. Make sure your writing flows smoothly, and has an introduction and conclusion that match up with your main idea. Make sure that your article has the right tone; sometimes, a single sentence can [...]
Writing and a Busy Life? Four Tips for Making it Work.
I was recently talking on the phone to my mother and catching her up with our family’s schedule for the next few months—my kids’ activities, doctor and dental appointments, carpools, writing conferences, a talk I was giving at the college I’d attended, and my next deadline—I’m under contract for two books for two different series [...]
Beginnings in Life and Literature
People look at the New Year as a new beginning. Although on December 31st/January 1st one year slips into another, we make a huge deal about the difference between these two days. As a writer—and a woman—I can tell you that new beginnings happen all the time, not just at the beginning of a calendar [...]
Wordsmithing: Go For It
Words. Individually they’re just symbols on a page. Meaningless, really. But when you string them together into a sentence that conjures up feelings and images, THEN you have something. That’s what I call creative wordsmithing. We’re all capable of it if you put forth a little effort. True, some are better at it than others, [...]
The A303 – A Storyteller’s Road: On Finding Landscapes for your Characters
There are two ways to drive from the South-East of England to the South-West. One is the M5 motorway; six lanes, wide visibility, smooth going. The other is the narrow, secretive A303. The A303 is the old road. The storytellers’ road. For most of its length it is a slender dual carriageway. It rolls on [...]
Reclaiming the Right to Write – “One Year To A Writing Life” by Susan Tiberghien
This review of Susan Tiberghien´s book was published in Bookarazzi when it first came out in 2007. Susan is the woman who showed me that I had the right to write. Now that I´m no longer able to participate in her workshops in Genveva, I am happy to have her book which I consult regulary for [...]
Writing Your First Line: The Shamanic Induction of Storytelling
Have you considered the spiritual implications of creating a powerful first sentence of your book? Yes, it’s the hook that dazzles readers so that they engage and read the rest of your book. It sets the theme of your work, instantly alluring or provoking readers. But what’s happening at a deeper level in those opening [...]
How To Write: Timed Writing or Practice Writing
Ute Carbone, a writer who discovered us on Twitter, submitted this rich post about a method of writing. The first step in writing is getting it all down. This can be hard. Words can be elusive; you see them glimmer in your peripheral vision. When you turn to stare they disappear. That wonderful turn of [...]
What is it about writing?
Some people hate to write. We know there are many many different reasons why that might be. I could name a few: Their fine motor skills weren’t ready yet when they were forced to write in school, creating a bad experience Their mind flooded with information when they tried to write Their mind [...]
