Tag: featured
What to do when the fire of your first draft has gone out
“Writing is finally about one thing: going into a room alone and doing it. Putting words on paper that have never been there in quite that way before. And although you are physically by yourself, the haunting Demon never leaves you, that Demon being the knowledge of your own terrible limitations, your hopeless inadequacy, the […]
How to Break Up with your Novel
To begin with, let me clarify: I don’t mean abandon your novel; I mean separate yourself from it. This has to happen eventually. For better or worse the novel you’ve written will come to term, and it will have to live (or not live) on its own, away from you. There may be any number […]
Writing Through Difficult Times
A seed of salvation exists inside each of us. I had to find mine early. My father’s undiagnosed, untreated schizophrenia and violent outbursts were often directed towards me. He lived in a black and white world, and saw me as the enemy, so he did everything he could to destroy my self-esteem and keep me […]
Why I Write From the Tub
The world is dramatic. Families are busy. Emails are endless. Those are the first three reasons that pop into my head when someone asks me why I write articles, sermons and stories from the tub. I think it started almost 20 years ago after my first son was born and I had founded a community for […]
The Unnoticed Writer
Over the last couple of days there’s been fair amount of buzz around the fiction writer Edith Pearlman. Her “break-out” story collection, Honeydew, is forthcoming from Little, Brown & Company. Pearlman is 78, and has published a number of story collections with small presses. In 2011, her collection Binocular Vision: New and Selected Stories earned […]
Finding the Hero
Which was your favourite fairytale? I was asked this question by a Transactional Analyst when I was a training to be a relationship counsellor. His message was that these tales – made familiar to us as children – help to make us into the people we are. I’ve since realised that they also shape the […]
We Can Not Be Defeated
There are writers who are joyful when they write. I have moments like that, sure, but in general I am terrified. I am more plotter than pantser, but there are things, usually the most integral, that are beyond preparation. I believe that you have to prove yourself, you have to earn it, before the story […]
Q&A with Sara Eckel
Sara Eckel is a personal hero for those of us here at WWWB. All you have to do is read the title of her book, which stemmed from her “Modern Love” column in The New York Times, and you’ll understand why: IT’S NOT YOU: 27 (WRONG) REASONS YOU’RE SINGLE (Perigree Books). In it, she uses […]
Diving Into the Silence: Writing Inspired by Real Life
My novel, The Herbalist, is set within living memory (1939) – and is based on a real-life court case I came across when I was nineteen. I was archiving yellowed local broadsheets crammed with small print when I noticed a tiny article. It referred to an Indian Herbalist who was arrested for an ‘offence against a […]
Secrets of Screenwriting
My writing partner says I exist in a world of a sky of rainbows. I’m known for having a great attitude. I’m also a person who was abused for the majority of my life (and later treated for PTSD). I’m perfect for Hollywood. I believe the combination of a huge ego, a little delusional and […]
Recent Comments