writing advice column | writing advice column
Nov.09.2012
When it comes to unethical practices, “Yeah, but everyone else does it” is not what I’m hoping to hear from you.
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Nov.08.2012
Perhaps you’ve heard before that you should be nice to people because you’ll see the same people coming down as you did going up; this means that if you’ve enjoyed a little success in your writing career lately, resist the temptation to act like a self-important jerk, particularly toward the...
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Nov.06.2012
Just because you’ve always plotted, it doesn’t mean you can’t pants; and just because you’ve always pantsed, it doesn’t mean you can’t plot – really, if something isn’t always working for you, you can change, people.
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Nov.05.2012
If plotting is your weakness, grab a book that you found gripping, not so you can plagiarize it – don’t ever do that! – but rather, so you can make a chapter-by-chapter outline of major events and plot twists and complications, in order to study how a compelling story is created.
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Nov.04.2012
As a general rule, when playing basketball or shooting pool, you learn more competing against those who are more skilled than you than against those of approximately equal ability or those you can beat handily, and so it is with writing: If you only ever aspire to be a big fish in a small pond, you...
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Nov.03.2012
Doing revisions isn’t a burden; it’s an opportunity.
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Nov.02.2012
Sometimes it seems as though everything’s fixed and, you know, a lot of things are and you have no control over that, but there’s one thing that isn’t fixed and that you do have absolute control over: how good you can make the book you’re working on right now.
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Nov.01.2012
Some days, it’s all too easy for writers to court depression, but like John Irving says in The Hotel New Hampshire: “Keep passing those open windows.”
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Oct.31.2012
If robocalls hop on your last nerve, you need to consider that every time you allow your twitter stream to become all about “my book, my book, MY BOOK!!!” you may be hopping on a few last nerves too.
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Oct.30.2012
No matter what is going on your writing/publishing life, panic does not become you.
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