Check your facts. You might not be Brian Williams. Maybe you don’t plan to write a memoir about your experience in the war against terrorism, cancer, death, or addiction. If you are a professional writer, you need to know facts still matter. Especially to your readers. If you write nonfiction, your credibility as an author depends on it. Corroborate your facts with additional documentation. Immerse… [Read More]
Now that the new year has begun I have been asked repeatedly whether I’ll lead any winter workshops for writers. Since we live where it’s snowy and cold I’ve decided it’s too difficult for me, and likely for you, too. With all the snow in the past week, I am ready for a road trip. I’m headed to Tampa tomorrow where I’ll offer an intensive… [Read More]
Today I’m going to share my top 10 digital tools for the business of being an author. Most of these are free and all of them are easy to use. I recommend them to you because I use them and find them valuable and think you will too. (1) WordPress for website and blogging – Hands down there is no better platform for authors… [Read More]
Six weeks of sabbatical from blogging this summer passed quickly. Too quickly. Sweetly slipped through my fingers. Like melting ice cubes. Rippling waves against ancient cliffs on Lake Superior’s shores. Finding the time and space and inspiration to write and do research without worrying about what anybody else thinks. Need I say more? The website redesign gave me the perfect excuse to pause and reflect… [Read More]
In a three-story former police precinct on University Avenue in the heart of Rochester’s Neighborhood of the Arts, you’ll find a bustling center of activity: a group of older folks heading upstairs for their workshop on memoir writing, a bunch of eight-year-olds, notebooks and pencils in hand, stepping out to find magical creatures in the Eastman Gardens, and laughter bursting from an improv comedy class… [Read More]
Tina Welling’s new book, Writing Wild: Forming a Creative Partnership with Nature, has just been released from New World Library. Tina Welling will be at Buffalo Street Books in Ithaca at 4PM on Saturday on May 31st. “Writing Wild is an impressive guide to feeling, seeing, thinking, and writing about the beauty, sadness, and wonder of life. Tina Welling has created a gift for us all.”… [Read More]
In the special part of my brain reserved for book related ephemera is a running list of my all-time favorite novels. I update the list quarterly in the event that I must spend the rest of my life on a remote island and will only be permitted ten books. So when this happens, I’ll be ready. I’ll shrug and say, “Sure, give me a minute…. [Read More]
Vinyl records, No. 2 pencils, yellow-ruled tablets and cork bulletin boards. What I thought I needed in the 1970s to write has changed. But I still need a place to stick things that I don’t yet know where to file but inspire. I’ve used the outside of kitchen cupboard to tape up newspaper clippings, flyers for upcoming events, photographs, maps, postcards, and ticket stubs. Push-pin… [Read More]
I read a lot, for both work and pleasure. When I read for work, my eyes scan every line, sentence, paragraph, page, chapter, and full manuscript for different criteria. I check spelling, grammar, punctuation, style, voice, tense, pacing, continuity, plot, narrative arc, tension, climax, resolution, and other less definable qualities such as honesty, heart, and whether the work might bring something new and necessary into… [Read More]
Shortly after her novel Ten Thousand Saints came out in early 2011, Eleanor Henderson answered a question at a book reading held at Buffalo Street Books in Ithaca. When asked how long it took her to write the novel, Henderson said nine years. Nine years. She explained that the first version didn’t even include several of the central characters in the final version. It made… [Read More]
