by Nanci | Apr 12, 2020 | Uncategorized
Your memoir was turned down by another publisher. You just received a form rejection letter – the worst kind – from an agent. Or maybe the feedback from your writer group flattened you. You thought your story was so much closer. Setbacks can crush us. And cause even...
by Nanci | Apr 12, 2020 | Uncategorized
When it comes to writing stories readers devour, it’s all about creating immediacy sentence by sentence. We can engineer a stellar plot line, dream up characters with compelling conflicts — all the broad strokes – but it’s the accumulation of small word choices that...
by Nanci | Apr 12, 2020 | Uncategorized
If you’ve been sharing your writing for any length of time, you’ve probably encountered criticism that makes you want to slink away and never write again. Maybe you’d rather keep that book you worked on for years tucked away in deep storage. Or write your memoir...
by Nanci | Dec 18, 2019 | Uncategorized
Few things inhibit our writing more than worrying about someone’s reaction to our portrayal of them. Whether we’re basing fictional characters on family and friends – or in the case of memoir, exposing them completely – we’re often in brutal negotiation between our...
by Nanci | Dec 18, 2019 | Uncategorized
I’ll admit. There was a period in my life when I didn’t sympathize with anyone who moaned about a lack of time to write. Life was radically different for me back then. I lived alone in a streamside apartment overlooking Mount Tremper. With vast savannahs of time...
by Nanci | Dec 18, 2019 | Uncategorized
How do you nudge your way into a story? Do you start with a childhood memory? A vintage photograph? An overheard conversation? We all have our own way in. And our creative processes are as singular as fingerprints. My friend and writer, Sarah, describes the gateway to...