Tag: writing

Writers & Artists Paying It Forward

Lori Twining Leave a comment
Artwork by Birch Notes Creative
Artwork by Birch Notes Creative; Photo credit ~ Lori Twining

Above all else, writers should be writing, but what if you have trouble getting words on the page?

With the world raging in turmoil outside our windows, writers start to wonder if the words they are writing will matter in a time like this. We thought the pandemic was challenging, but now, people are dying thanks to a man with a greed problem. I’m simplifying this because the man has more problems than greed, but I’m sure you understand we are on the verge of World War III now that Putin, the Russian leader, has ripped up the peace deal and has launched a devastating attack on Ukraine by air, land, and sea.

This news is scary shit. Read more

Finding Your Family – Comparable Titles

Donna Judy Curtin Leave a comment
Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash

The dreaded ‘comp’ or comparative title is every querying novelist’s nemesis. You spend years writing and perfecting your novel—a book only you could have written, a story unlike any other—and then you’re asked to list the similar books.

What? Are they crazy? Of course, there is nothing exactly like your novel—that’s why you wrote it.

The trouble is—this is the business of books. If you want an agent to promote your work, if you dream of the day a publisher will commit to printing your pages and you can’t wait to see your glossy hard cover baby mingling on the shelves of your favourite bookstore, then you need to help everyone to position your book. Read more

The Evil Sisters Anosmia and Ageusia

Seana Moorhead 2 Comments
~from Pixabay, PublicDomainPictures

So I caught the ugly fish, Covid 19, in early January. Like a huge catfish, it latched onto me with its sucker mouth and slathered me with all of its nasty symptoms. This includes losing my sense of  smell (Anosmia) and taste (Ageusia) for a week.

These are the twin sisters of senses as the loss of smell effects the sense of taste.

…and smell and taste are in fact but a single composite sense, whose laboratory is the mouth and its chimney the nose…

~ Anthelme Brilliant-Savarin (and see note below)
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A Writer’s Dream: An Island of Uninterrupted Time

Lori Twining 2 Comments

What is something every writer craves, besides an active imagination?

The answer is time. To be more specific: UNINTERRUPTED TIME.

Why?

So, you could write and possibly finish that novel you have been working on for a year. Or has it been two or three years? Since the pandemic started, it feels more like one big giant nightmare of when-will-this-ever-be-over kind of day/month/year. Sad, but true.

What if I told you that I know where there is a private island? Read more

I Am NOT In Charge!

Joan McAndrew 2 Comments

Humans insist that we are qualified to run the world. Every so often, the world says “wanna bet?” as it bombards us with proof that we aren’t (i.e., climate change and covid-19). Still our governments assure us they have our backs and that rescue is on its way. Alas, turns out our governments are full of humans. But, being ever hopeful (or stupid), we console ourselves with platitudes like, “Everything will be fine. We just need a little more time.

”This process reminds of the steady thrum of ‘wannabe writers’ as we complain about all the things in our lives that must be done before we find enough time to write.

I, for one, have been saying that since I was 8 years old. I read books that taught me how to manage time and thus find more. Then, twenty-five years ago, I discovered the magic of Morning Pages as recommended in The Artist’s Way. Much to my surprise I stayed steady with this practice until December 25th, 2021. That was the day I realized last year’s journal was full of pages and pages of ‘woe is me’ jumbled up with ‘I am woman!’ declarations, all of it punctuated with daily ‘to-do-lists’, that I don’t complete. Why? Read more

Consulting an Expert

Seana Moorhead 1 Comment
Image by mohamed Hassan, pixabay

Margaret Atwood upon writing “Oryx and Crake” found a young man with commitment issues to read a draft of her story.  She wanted to make sure that she got things right with her main character (who had commitment issues) and didn’t make any major errors.  Atwood explained about how important it is to find a reader similar to a character whenever you write a character who is not yourself.  Small details can make a difference between having a reader commit to your story or fall out of it.  

I had already heard that it can be helpful to have a reader review your work when you add in characters that have a different ethnic or racial background than you.  This is called a “sensitivity reader”. It’s important to ensure that you have the details correct and prevent yourself from falling into stereotypes with these characters  I had never thought I expanding that concept to all my main characters regardless of their ethnic background. Read more

When Is a Writer Considered Successful?

Lori Twining Leave a comment
Lori Twining

The definition of success:

Success (the opposite of failure or defeat) is the status of having achieved and accomplished an aim or objective. Being successful means achieving desired visions and planned goals. The dictionary describes success as the following: “attaining wealth, prosperity and/or fame”.

Last week, I had at least a dozen weird “writerly” things happen to me. Here are two situations that are relevant to this question: When is a writer considered successful?

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Storm-Stayed Stories

Bernice Connell Leave a comment
Curvy windy road in snow covered forest, top down aerial view.

If there is one thing that can ease the stress of being stranded by a surprise winter storm when traveling, it is getting to hang out with folks who are great storytellers.

This was the lucky situation for me last week when traveling to Fort Frances. After a bumpy landing in Thunder Bay amid blustery seventy-kilometer per hour winds, it was a quick ride to a hotel with the hopes of getting a room. Many other travelers had the same plan. The Trans-Canada Highway heading west was closed as was the 350 kilometer stretch of road to Fort Frances.

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