This post is for all my writer friends out there. If you go (or have gone) to writers’ workshops, you’ll know that the topic of voice is high up on the list of must-haves. Supposedly, though, it’s an elusive thing, something you’ll know only when you’ve found it. Something that’ll make the best agent or […]
Revisions–What To Do When You Don’t Want To Do Them
Fanfare, please! Ta-da! We have two winners of John Jodzio’s signed short story collection, If You Lived Here You’d Already Be Home. They are, in no official order: Dani Rice & Jess [If the two of you would e-mail me at comment4elissa at gmail dot com (or FB me) with your address, I’ll gladly mail […]
Persistence & Other Such Things When It Comes to Writing
A few interesting articles in November’s Poets & Writers Magazine. Check out the Agents & Editors Q & A with Jonathan Karp, editor in chief of Twelve. Obviously, Twelve is doing something right (publishing one book a month). Fifteen of the first thirty books published by Twelve have been New York Times bestsellers. There’s much […]
Page One
Poets & Writers Magazine has a brief monthly section called “Page One: Where New and Noteworthy Books Begin.” For you writers out there, it’s a fun cross-section of first sentences of novels or poetry collections. ’Cuz we all know how hard it is to come up with that first great sentence! A sampling for you […]
Dialogue in Fiction
Today is for writers…or readers who are interested in craft. I just read Benjamin Percy’s fabulous article on “The Geometry of Dialogue” in the Poets & Writers Magazine, July/August 2009 issue. Unfortunately, it’s only available in print, so if you’re a writer, run–don’t walk–to the nearest Barnes & Noble to grab a copy. Percy’s piece […]