How to Stay in the Room (Part 1)
A full-time writer shares her secrets to staying organized, from writing software to spreadsheets.
In Defense of Longhand
Barbara Christina on what's to be gained from trading keyboards for pen and ink.
Cover Letter for The Cabin
This overwrought cover letter to a prospective publisher details one novelist's childhood, writing process and condiment obsession.
Writer’s Block Buster: Think Inside a Box
Because ideas only seem to strike in the shower, our columnist attempts to break free of writer's block by confining herself to a similar small space.
An Impractical Solution for an Impractical Era
Given that we’re already well into the second decade of the twenty-first century, I’m willing to bet that your writing machine is also an e-mail machine, a blog machine, a magazine and newspaper machine, a Facebook machine, a Twitter machine, and in some cases a pinball machine.
Impermanent Things
The amateur novelist comes to understand a key aspect of novel writing: no change—minor or catastrophic—is off the table. Today’s episode: the delirious fever of rewriting.
A Furious Blaze of Liquid-Life Energy
One of the questions that torments me as a writer—and trust me, there are many—is the question of free will. Do I believe that individuals have the freedom to choose their own destiny?
The 8th “R” of Positivity for the Unpublished Novelist
The amateur novelist has an enlightening experience where all enlightening experiences seem to happen: out in the woods. Today's episode: The importance of relaxation (without having to waste time relaxing).
How to Offend Your Family
What’s the point of being a writer if not to let your resentments build over a lifetime so that you may one day slay your family members through the refracted mirror of art?
The Psychology of Waiting
The amateur novelist resists the urge to make a tally mark in his skin for each day that goes by without good news. Today’s episode: managing neuroses.
Drawing out the Truth: Creative Nonfiction as Comic
In Syncopated: an Anthology of Nonfiction Picto-Essays (Villard, 2009), editor Brendan Burford seeks to expand the dialogue that works like Maus have begun. Within this large-format collection, Burford has assembled an ambitious collection of comics-as-essay ranging from personal narrative, to biography, to literary journalism and more.
We Whose Futures Rest on 150 Words
The amateur novelist takes on the attributes of a salesman, going door to proverbial door in the vast cruel market of the publishing industry. Today’s episode: perfecting the plot hook.
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