Writing Advice | Writing Advice
Oct.01.2012
When other areas of your life – physical, emotional – are spinning out of control, you can say, “Oh, I can’t write right now; there’s just too much going on,” or you can write and feel good about it, because that’s one area of your life you still can control.
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Sep.30.2012
The good thing about the ebook revolution is that that book you always knew was good can see the light of day; the bad thing about the ebook revolution is that that book that should never see the light of day can; the tragedy of the ebook revolution is that the former might not sell while...
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Sep.29.2012
If you spend time and money to go to a conference, and then spend all your time there playing the wallflower, the only person you are hurting is yourself – cut it out.
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Sep.28.2012
If you are successful in one area of writing, people will want to put you in a box – it’s up to you to decide whether or not you’re content to remain there.
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Sep.27.2012
Once you’ve achieved a certain level of success, you may find that other writers are less interested in celebrating your glories or commiserating over your disappointments; e.g. (show of hands here): How many of you want to hear J.K. Rowling crow about a PW rave or pout about a cruel Kirkus? – yeah...
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Sep.25.2012
I thought we’d dispensed with the topic of blurbs a while back but...when asking for blurbs from an obviously more famous writer (because why would you ever request a blurb from someone less famous), resist the impulse to make it sound as though it is you who are doing them a favor, as in, “...
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Sep.24.2012
On Valentine’s Day, 1989, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa on Salman Rushdie for writing The Satanic Verses, forcing the author to live in hiding for many years – and you thought your reviews were bad; get some perspective, people.
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Sep.23.2012
When you were young, your mum or some surrogate undoubtedly advised you to always wear clean underwear in case you suddenly had to go to the hospital and this advice becomes even more important now that you’re going to be a famous author because who wants to hear Ambulance Driver Speaking to...
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Sep.22.2012
Dreams and reality rarely line up in a writer’s life so all you can do is dream of the best, do what’s in your power to make that happen, then deal with what actually does happen; and, you know, there’s always wine – and whine!
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Sep.21.2012
Instead of looking at the success of people who annoy you and thinking ‘Why them and not me?’, why not look at them and think ‘What are they doing different that I can maybe do different too?’ because it is possible to learn from almost anyone, however much they may annoy you.
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