Sep 10
Last week, I wrote about how to acquire a creative mind via a short video by creativity coach Eric Maisel. In this 2-minute clip, Maisel discusses how artists make meaning from their lives through creativity. He says we cannot give up on our creativity without hurting ourselves.
A good point to keep in mind for those times when we feel like chucking our laptop out the window or feeding our latest work-in-progress to the garbage disposal.
If you’re looking for ways to generate new work or push forward on an existing project, consider holding your own writing retreat. Retreats can be a great way to push aside the distractions that deter us from writing.
These posts detail how two writers approached holding a writing retreat alone or with others.
On her blog Book of Kells, Kelli Russell Agodon details how she and friends met to generate work using writing exercises. Agodon shares the writing exercises and benefits of doing them.
Jason Theodor wrote about his do-it-yourself writing retreat complete with tips from setting up a writing space to finding the time to get away.
Sep 6
I’ve had a hectic couple of weeks and, as a consequence, have felt frustrated with the lack of progress on my current manuscript. Though I know what I need to do—set aside some quiet time, ditch the negative self-talk, and get more rest—sometimes it works better to hear it from somebody else.
In this 4-minute video, creativity expert Eric Maisel discusses a process for acquiring a creative mind. He explains how thinking small, unproductive thoughts can literally crowd our minds and prevent us from having those big brainstorming ideas.
Enjoy! Read more
Publishing can seem like an arduous process. It’s easy to think it will never happen. Your evil twin may try to discourage you with all sorts of reasons to give up, including that maybe you’re too old.
Think again. The longer we live, the more experiences and insight we gain and can use in our writing.
Here are several authors who were in their 40s and beyond when they published for the first time.
Paul Harding, author of Tinkers, won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize with his debut novel, published when he was 42. Read more
Successful writers know not to “info dump” on their readers. In other words, they don’t stop the flow of their story to give the reader paragraphs or pages of detailed information.
Information dumping or fire hosing, as I like to call it, slows down the story, the narrative, and everything else. When I come across a book that stops to describe, in great length, a new character—everything from their looks to their clothing—I cringe. If it happens close to the beginning, then I know it’s going to be like this the entire way through.
I finally had to stop reading one fantasy series because every time the main character changed clothes, we had to read about it. The sad part is that the storylines kept me interested, but I just couldn’t read one more time about the protagonist’s favorite pair of Nikes. Read more
In an interview with author and journalist Pete Hamill, he explains how he researches his novels and in the process creates memories for his fictional characters.
If his fiction is set in the past, he reads histories, letters, memoirs and old newspapers.
“Then I let my notes marinate for awhile, usually a few months, until they become memory…the memory of one or more of the characters.”
Many newspapers have placed archives online and for older editions of newspapers that aren’t online, check the archives at your library. You’ll also find letters, artifacts, photos, and historical documents at local and state libraries and historical societies.
Read the full interview with Hamill in the December 2011 issue of The Writer magazine.
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