What makes people follow, favorite, click, and retweet? This post updates one I did two years ago--a generation or more in social media right?--with info I learned from a Random Penguin author tutorial I watched today. The Twitter Basics... 1. Funny is good. 2. Informative is … [Read more...]
A Survival Guide to Writers Conferences: 1. Eat Chocolate for Breakfast
A friend who is heading for a writers' conference next month asked if I had any advice, and since it's not the first time I've been asked: 1. Eat Chocolate for Breakfast. Just a square of extra dark. It's a known mood enhancer, and everyone does better at everything when in a … [Read more...]
The Lowly Pencil
Pencil, from the Latin penicillus, meaning "little tail." Little tail? Not everyone writes even occasionally with the old fashioned yellow pencil with pink eraser top anymore. This astonishing fact came to my attention through a more newfangled way to communicate, the Facebook … [Read more...]
Video Wikis
I know -- and use -- Wikipedia on a pretty regular basis. But I didn't know until recently there there is such a thing a a video wiki. Did you? Video Wikis This is why we love the internet: so much information that used to be nearly inaccessible is now not just accessible, but … [Read more...]
Paddling your Bathtub into London: How Great Stories End
I taught a master class on narrative endings at a writers' gathering this weekend, and promised to share my notes here. They are just my notes, which may or may not be helpful to anyone who did not attend the lecture. With that caveat: PADDLING YOUR BATHTUB INTO LONDON: HOW … [Read more...]
A Hemingway Story that Started 100 Years Ago Today
On this day 100 years ago, 18-year-old Ernest Hemingway (yes, that guy) was distributing chocolate and cigarettes to soldiers at the Italian front when a shell burst nearby, putting a whole heck of a lot of shrapnel in his leg. He ended up in a Milan hospital, where he met and … [Read more...]
5 Quotes from Philip Roth on Reading, Writing, and Life
I was saddened to hear the news last night that Philip Roth has died. Here are a few of the wisdoms I learned from reading his books: On reading: "Everybody else is working to change, persuade, tempt and control them. The best readers come to fiction to be free of all that … [Read more...]
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