How a Book Is Born, Part 12
In which I decide to kill off a character. And then rescind the decision.
In which I decide to kill off a character. And then rescind the decision.
After yesterday’s post about my many and varied personas, I had the usual run of “I wish I could get as much done as you do!” comments. I am never quite sure how I should respond to these. The “I wish I could” is invariably followed by “but.” But I have a day job, but…
This is a guest post by the energetic Linda Formichelli, co-author of The Renegade Writer. If you’ve ever fallen asleep at your computer when you should be working, this post will give you some ideas on what to do differently: One of the many reasons freelancers procrastinate on writing, marketing — everything — is that…
Every time a writer asks me, “Do you think if I do what this editor suggests, my novel will get published?” I have to pause to experience a moment of pity before I can respond. If only it were that simple. Let me explain. In one corner are those editors who you might hire yourself…
A while back I was reading Christopher de Hamel’s Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts, and for a time I was twenty-five again, heart, mind, body, soul, remembering my joy on first seeing an illuminated manuscript in the Morgan Library in NYC, a trip I took as a graduate student to attend a humanities conference. The first…
This past weekend, I did a small group pitch session where writers had a few minutes to tell me about their books. A couple of things struck me as worthy of mention, in case you ever find yourself in a similar situation: 1. It’s really important to be able to say what your story is…
Today I was going to write a gentle blog post about how to conduct your relationship with your agent/potential agent, but Jessica over at Bookends beat me to it. Two of the most important things she says are, “I don’t want an author who disrespects me” and “agents are only as successful as their reputations.” …