If you’re anything like me, part of your New Year’s Resolution (that’s still a thing, right?) was to write more. It might’ve been to hit a certain word or page count in a day, write for a certain time length, develop a number of ideas in a day, etc. Whatever it was, you told...
Overcoming Writer’s Block
The Ideas that Inspired The Hobbit, Animal Farm & 8 Other Famous Books
Ideas often percolate and simmer over time, but every once in a while lightning strikes—and a sudden flash of creativity can alter a writer’s career forever. Take, for example, these 10 famous works inspired by unexpected bolts of inspiration.
3 Steps For Overcoming Writer’s Block
This writing tip addresses overcoming writer’s block and is excerpted from You Don’t Have to Be Famous by Steve Zousmer. Being stuck at the start creates a special kind of frustration. Before you can even get going, you are tangled in knots, immobilized, virtually paralyzed. Your skills and bright ideas desert you like rats...
How to Overcome Writer’s Block Like a Bestselling Author
Writers everywhere have or will lack writing inspiration. Whether you need help to overcome writer’s block, or are simply looking for inspiration for writing, read our today’s tip, taken from Write Great Fiction: Revision and Self-Editing by James Scott Bell. We all have times in our writing when the words get stuck, or the...
Why Julia Cameron Plays By Her Own Writing Rules
Alcoholism. A turbulent Hollywood marriage. Writer’s Block. For the author of The Artist’s Way, the path of the writer has never been a walk in the park.
6 Simple Ways to Reboot Your Writing Routine
Abandoned manuscripts, dwindling writing time, stubborn computers—sometimes your writing life can feel like it’s lost the plot. It’s time to recenter and refocus—and start 2012 off right.
4 Ways Inspiration Helps You Beat Writer’s Block
Battling writer’s block? Relax. Research suggests inspiration will find you.
How to Prepare for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)
November is known by most literati as National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo for short. How it works: Start writing a 50,000-word novel on November 1 and finish by midnight on November 30th. I've participated in the event twice. First, let me share these three important takeaways from my experience.
Writer’s Workout Exclusive
Download a free motivational poster to keep you moving as your build your writing career. Read an Excerpt! Learn how to cultivate clarity, inventory ideas, write richly, and serve up words. About the Book Find out more ways to cross train your writing career in The Writer’s Workout by Christina Katz.
Writer’s Workout Excerpt
Excerpt from The Writer’s Workout by Christina Katz CULTIVATE CLARITY When you write something needlessly prolix and convoluted, there’s a reason for it, and that reason is usually a lack of clarity and purpose going on. —Robert Masello The reader shouldn’t have to do all the work. Recently I picked up a magazine and...
Writer’s Workout
The Writer’s Workout: 366 Tips, Tasks, & Techniques from Your Writing Career Coach by Christina Katz Writer’s Digest Books, 2011 ISBN-13: 978-1-59963-179-0 ISBN-10: 1-59963-179-2 $19.99 paperback, 384 pages Buy the Book! Read an Excerpt! Learn how to cultivate clarity, inventory ideas, write richly, and serve up words. Online Exclusive Download a free motivational poster...
It’s Time for #StoryFriday
Two years ago on a hot Friday morning I was feeling burnout and was desperately looking for a fun boost. Scrabble just wasn't going to cut it, I was tired of losing The New Yorker Caption contest, and HR apparently frowns upon booze in the office (I know, I know, silly office rules). I...
The Q: Do You Have Writer Envy?
All I've ever wanted to be one of the most clever writers in the world and, thanks to Facebook status updates, I'm not even sure I'm the most clever writer in my house. Not a day goes by where I don't read an article, short story, book or tweet and think to myself, Oh...
Reject a Hit: Marley & Me
Let’s step once again into the mind of the unconvinced, perhaps even curmudgeonly or fool-hearted editor: What harsh rejection letters might the authors of some of our favorite hit books have had to endure?
This time we take on John Grogan of Marley & Me fame.
6 Steps to Jump-Start Your Story
Sooner or later, we all get stranded in the middle of our manuscripts. Use these 6 steps to jump-start your story so you can keep on driving.
by John Dufresne
Reject a Hit: J.K. Rowling
Let’s step once again into the role of the unconvinced, perhaps even curmudgeonly or fool-hearted editor: What harsh rejection letters might the authors of some of our favorite hit books have had to endure? This time we take on J.K. Rowling of Harry Potter fame.
10 Ways to Stay Sane When Frustrated With Your Writing
So how does bestselling author Karin Slaughter (Broken) stay sane when her writing is frustrating her? We asked—and here are her responses.
10 Ways to Fuel Your Writing
It takes a lot of energy to write a book and stay with it through drafts, revisions, submissions, rejections, sales and marketing. Many writers find the energy in the sheer joy of writing. But others draw on darker impulses and feelings to carry them through the process. Sorrow, anger and hurt can be the...
Creating 3-Dimensional Scenes
Strengthen a weak scene in your novel in just 30 minutes by trying this writing exercise.
Bestselling Author Nicholas Sparks Explains the Creative Process
For Nicholas Sparks, the secret to success on both bookshelves and the big screen is as simple as knowing that a good story just isn't enough. It has to be memorable, too.
by Jessica Strawser
10 Creative Ways to Beat Writer’s Block Fast
Following are 10 exercises that will help you take a fresh look at your work-in-progress by giving you a mental break.
by Fred White
The 10 Best Places for Writers to Live
Humor writer Bob Woodiwiss, author of The Serfitt & Cloye Gift Catalog: Just Enough of Too Much, takes a funny look what places around the country are conducive to the writer-life.
Exercise: Defining Personal Stakes
Without personal stakes, even the highest-voltage thriller can read like an empty plot exercise. Raise the personal stakes, and we will all care what happens in your story, whether the plot is boiling or not.
How to Build Tension and Heighten the Stakes
The stakes in fiction matter because stakes create tension. Here's how to up the stakes so your audience will stay with you until the end of your novel.
by Jessica Page Morrell
Exercise: Capturing the Moment of Irrevocable Commitment
Is there a moment of ultimate stakes in your current manuscript? If not, you need to fix it on the page to ensure that your hero’s testing and eventual commitment will be fixed in your readers’ minds for a long time to come.