Some words of wisdom from John Gardner, whose The Art of Fiction: Notes on Craft for Young Writers is the writing book I most often turn to. This one, though, …
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Hemingway's Advice to Writers
For a new slant in the new year right, I've decided to mix author guest posts with advice from other writers on how a writer might ... do whatever it is we do. …
If You Think Continuing to Rewrite is Wasted Time…
...take a look at the winner of this year's National Book Award for fiction: Shadow Mountain. It's a reworking of three novels previously published by Peter …
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Eleven Years to a Pulitzer
I was listening to NPR on the way to the grocery store this afternoon, and heard just a snippet of a fascinating City Arts and Lectures discussion with Junot …
On Book Tours
I just read Ann Patchett's "My Life in Sales" in The Atlantic; it's true, I read anything with Ann Patchett's name on it. And perhaps because I'm in the middle …
Sheryl Cohen Solomon: If At First You Do Succeed
My guest this week is Sheryl Cohen Solomon, a writer of very funny and touching personal essays. She published her first essay in North Shore Magazine. The …
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Meg Waite Clayton: In Praise of Writing Friends
No guest today. Just me, since it's my publication week! The history of my own writing starts with a purse. Like the character of Linda in my new novel, The …
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Brenda Rickman Vantrease: A 136-Rejection Overnight Success
My guest blogger today, Brenda Rickman Vantrease, is the author of the critically acclaimed The Mercy Seller, and the national bestseller, The Illuminator, …
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Julia Flynn Siler: “Girl Reporter” Turned Bestselling Author
My guest blogger this Wednesday is Julia Flynn Siler, whose bestselling House of Mondavi is a finalist for the James Beard Foundation Award and for a Gerald …
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On Your Way to the Incinerator
If you think writers are born rather than made and brilliant writing is recognized immediately, those rejection slips for your novel—or story or nonfiction …