A Laugh and a Lil’ Favor For a Friend
(“Use your blog for good, grasshopper, not evil.”) I don’t often do this, but here goes. A friend of mine — who is, by the way, a writer, and one who does stand up comedy — is in a comedy competition in L.A. He’s a USC student (like my son), and he’s hilarious and talented. […]
“Top Ten Tuesdays” — A guest post from Joanna Penn
Welcome to Top Ten Tuesdays, a series of guest blogs by winners of the “Top Ten Blogs for Writers” contest hosted at Writetodone.com. Why You Should Consider Independent Publishing A guest post from Joanna Penn from TheCreativePenn.com: Adventures in Writing, Publishing and Book Marketing Let’s get this straight up front. I would love a book […]
Click and Read About My Three Favorite Writing Tips
This morning I have a guest post over at Routines for Writers called “My Three Favorite Writing Tips of All Time.” Click HERE to go there. The site belongs to Stephanie Shackelford, who in addition to offering killer posts on the writing life, has a monthly “author crush” feature (blush). Check out her archives for […]
The 102nd Killer Writing Tip
Wherein we address the question: “Why, when I have a hot idea and a killer concept, an astoundingly compelling hero, a powerful theme and I just happen to write like the love child of Hemingway and Margaret Mitchell… why, with all those wonderful things in place, can’t I sell my story?” This might be why. […]
“Top Ten Tuesdays” — Please Welcome Guest Blogger Carol Tice
Welcome to our new feature, Top Ten Tuesdays, a series of guest blogs by winners of the “Top Ten Blogs for Writers” contest hosted at Writetodone.com. The Upside of Selling Out By Carol Tice, of Make a Living Writing Back before I was a freelance writer, I was a songwriter, when I lived in L.A. […]
Writers: Give The Gift of “Getting Off The Dime”
Also known as getting one’s ass in gear. With my son in college I spend an inordinate amount of time pondering career choices. Not mine (too late there)… his. About how to launch one’s naïve and hopeful self in the general vicinity of making a worthy and enduring dream come true. First you find such […]
Attack of the Killer Story Ideas
As a writer you get this question all the time: where do your story ideas come from? Sometimes we have an answer – like, it’s based on my divorce experience when I wanted to kill my wife’s lawyer – sometimes we fake it because we don’t really have a clue. And upon occasion, the universe […]
The Lyric-Inspired Log-Line Contest Winner Is…
The highest goal of storytelling is to write something that changes lives. For us this takes 400 pages and a whole lot of talent and luck. For songwriters, they get three minutes to come up with an iconic line or two that makes them and their music immortal. More people on the planet remember Imagine […]
The Holy Grail of Getting Published Big
That’s what we all want, right? In our secret heart of hearts we want it all, the window position at Borders, a spot on the Times list, maybe a morning shot on GMA. Truth be known, that little secret desire resides right next to the unflagging belief that we can write as well as the […]
Finding – and Leading With — Theme
(Note to skimmers – read to the end for a fun little storytelling exercise — and a contest!) Some writers are completely and totally theme driven. Every story they write has an agenda, a message to send and a point of view to either explore or sell. Others are story-driven, and because their stories are […]