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On Commitments, Participation and the Writing Community
image by Rebecca Siegel On one hand, I should be breathing easy. My alter ego recently turned in the manuscript of her next book — not the first draft, and not the final final one that will appear...
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Dealing With Book Promotion Fatigue
image by Guillaume Joly Writers get tired. The process of writing, of editing, of writing some more, of editing some more, of searching for representation, of reworking the book yet again, of waiting...
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The Writer’s Real Enemies
image by Balazs Szabo Talking with a group of aspiring writers recently, I was struck by how many of them felt like everyone in the publishing world was against them. “Why are agents so narrow-minded...
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Writing Someone Else’s Story
image by Sheng P. My novel The Kitchen Daughter was published in 2011. Seven years is not that long ago, really, but for many reasons, it feels like a different lifetime. The world has changed a great...
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Writing, the Gift of Time and O’Henry
image by sakaki0214 One of the best gifts you can give yourself as a writer is time. Time is a scarce commodity for many of us. Anyone with obligations to meet beyond writing — school, work, family, a...
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Writing Advice for Fools
image by Gary Ging Happy April Fools’ Day! In honor of the holiday, I’ll be giving highly prescriptive, condescending writing advice that sets arbitrary limits, reinforces inflexible constraints, and...
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Making Room for Silence
image by Giulia van Pelt One of the secrets to balancing a busy life is doing more than one thing at a time. We listen to audiobooks while we drive, manage a hands-off dinner with our Instant Pots,...
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It’s Always in the Last Place You Look
Image by chrisxx64 My five-year-old chose a Little Mermaid birthday cake this year solely for the toy it came with: a little plastic Ariel riding a little plastic ocean wave. To minimize chaos at the...
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A Novelist’s Necessary Evils
There are plenty of great things about writing and publishing novels. But today, I’m not here to discuss any of them. No, today it’s time to talk about three of the necessary evils a novelist deals...
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Writing, Verbs and Time
image by Stereo Phonik Is there anything more precious to a writer than time? It’s the resource that makes all the difference. Time to think. Time to write. Time to edit. Time with readers. And we need...
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The Stories We Tell Ourselves
image by Guido Klumpe Success in publishing is always at least partly a matter of luck. The writing itself, we can largely control: our minds gin up the premise, our will drives the process, our hands...
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Getting Comfortable With Failure
As writers and as people, most of us have been told over and over again to push ourselves. You don’t know what you’re capable of until you try! Reach for the stars! Writers often set ambitious goals —...
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Is Writing Work?
I’m tempted, of course, to make this the shortest Writer Unboxed post in history. (“Is writing work? Yes.” Done!)Writing is work. Hard work, sometimes. Frustrating and challenging and exhausting, yes,...
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One Way to Make Everything Better
image by Dimitris Kalogeropoylos There are no easy answers in writing and publishing, right? When I went through some of the biggest changes in my writing career — for example, getting an agent, or...
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The Future of Politics in Novels
At the time I write this, we have no idea what the political future of America looks like: with the conclusion of voting in the 2020 U.S. election imminent on November 3rd, I’d venture to say no...
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Writing Advice for Fools
image by Gary Ging Happy April Fools’ Day! In honor of the holiday, I’ll be giving highly prescriptive, condescending writing advice that sets arbitrary limits, reinforces inflexible constraints, and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Making Room for Silence
image by Giulia van Pelt One of the secrets to balancing a busy life is doing more than one thing at a time. We listen to audiobooks while we drive, manage a hands-off dinner with our Instant Pots,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
It’s Always in the Last Place You Look
Image by chrisxx64 My five-year-old chose a Little Mermaid birthday cake this year solely for the toy it came with: a little plastic Ariel riding a little plastic ocean wave. To minimize chaos at the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Novelist’s Necessary Evils
There are plenty of great things about writing and publishing novels. But today, I’m not here to discuss any of them. No, today it’s time to talk about three of the necessary evils a novelist deals...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Writing, Verbs and Time
image by Stereo Phonik Is there anything more precious to a writer than time? It’s the resource that makes all the difference. Time to think. Time to write. Time to edit. Time with readers. And we need...
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