A couple of years ago, I decided to participate in National Novel Writing Month. With a shrug and then focused vigor, I dove into writing a 50,000-word story. It was an intense, frustrating, and ultimately, rewarding journey. I got to swim in the dream of my story. Set in Paris, about a cool botanist, secretive and suspenseful, with plants at the book’s heart, I wrote … Continue reading 7 Things I Learned From NaNoWriMo
What I love about the game UNO is just when you think you’ve lost, the momentum changes and things start to look up. The same could be said of writing. Just when you’re about to give up, you can’t, because you never know what’s about to happen. Take my summer. It was a weird one. After spending the spring querying and entering contests and submitting … Continue reading The Writing Life is Like a Game of UNO
In an issue of The Writer’s Chronicle from a few years ago, teacher Catherine Wallace wrote an interesting article on how to solicit feedback from editors, teachers, classmates, friends, family, whomever. I found it helpful. She discussed the dangers of fault-finding criticism while outlining what kind of feedback she believes is most helpful, arguing that caring for a manuscript is not unlike raising children: you must praise … Continue reading Feedback That’s Gracious yet Demanding
