Writing Beyond Failure

Writing Beyond Failure

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...
The Simple Sculpting Technique for Riveting Sentences

The Simple Sculpting Technique for Riveting Sentences

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...
7 Ways to Recover from Scathing Feedback

7 Ways to Recover from Scathing Feedback

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...
Writing About People We Know – Is It Worth It?

Writing About People We Know – Is It Worth It?

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...
How to Generate Unlimited Story Ideas

How to Generate Unlimited Story Ideas

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...

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