Sep 5, 2023 | Writing and Creating |
Writing holds the potential to provoke a considerable amount of fear. We worry if we can turn into completed prose the vague thoughts in our heads. We’re anxious about what our readers will think of what we’ve written. We’re afraid we’ll never...
Jul 21, 2023 | Writing and Creating |
The Nobel-Prize-winning writer William Faulkner published 19 novels, 125 short stories, 20 screenplays, one play, and six collections of poetry. How on earth did he manage to stay inspired? Here’s what Faulkner himself said: “I only write when I am...
May 22, 2023 | Writing and Creating |
“Priming the pump” is one of those expressions you probably use without thinking about it. Used metaphorically, it means to encourage the success or growth of a thing by taking steps to get it started. But literally, the origin of the phrase is the...
Mar 21, 2023 | Writing and Creating |
Picture the solitary writer, scribbling alone in a dismal garret. Shivering in a threadbare sweater and fingerless gloves, the writer persists despite poverty, heartbreak, and isolation from humanity, until completing the great work that will lift the writer from...
Jan 17, 2023 | Writing and Creating |
If you expect to produce written material on a regular basis in the coming year, you need a plan. Writing coach Nina Amir explains it like this: “If you were… a marathon runner, you’d have a plan for how to run the race… how to overcome the...
Nov 15, 2022 | Writing and Creating |
Dame Hilary Mantel published her first novel at the age of 33. Over the next three decades, she wrote twelve books of historical fiction, two collections of short stories, and a memoir. She was the first woman to twice win the Booker Prize for fiction. I’d say...