Straight talk from the sisters about blood, sweat and ink
In the life of any book, there comes a time when the writer has to step back from the creative process and move into editing mode. Once that first draft is down, whether written in spurts or a steady stream, the task of critical evaluation and tweaking begins. We go over our work multiple times …
Continue reading “An Editor’s Perspective on Killing Our Darlings”
Writing is hard work, but there’s lots to be said for what it offers: flexible hours, creative freedom, a vehicle for expression and communication. A book marks our spot in the world, reflecting our passage long after we’re gone, and even if only one person reads it, the act of leaving a tangible part of …
Continue reading “A Cruise Through the Emotional Valleys and Peaks of Writing”
The decision to self publish can be tough. For some of us, it follows months of pursuing the traditional route, trying to stay buoyant through multiple rejections and dozens of rewrites, catering to the expressed or implied preferences of industry professionals and beta readers. A few authors eschew the big five and smaller independent presses …
Continue reading “The Decision to Self Publish: Defeat or Triumph?”
When my daughter Amber was seven years old, she wanted a kitten, and we decided to seek one out at the SPCA in Johannesburg. Any visit to a shelter is always heart wrenching because there are so many animals worthy of adoption, and their survival depends on their ability to connect with us. Most seem …
Continue reading “Marketing Our Books: What We Can Learn From Our Pets”
Sometimes, rarely, I enter competitions. I’ve won two: a state of the art camera for a wildlife poster I designed, and the other a novel for randomly throwing my name into a hat. The camera got stolen, but I still have the novel–Yann Martel’s Beatrice and Virgil, which I haven’t read yet. You may remember that …
Continue reading “The World Does Not Need Another Novel. Does It?”
Last week I said I’d write about NaNoWriMo, that whirlwind of writing activity centered around churning out a novel in 30 days. A year ago I actually pulled it off without registering, as I wanted to see if such a thing could be done, if I could do such a thing. At the end of …
Continue reading “Secret benefits of NaNoWriMo”
If we look up the meaning of the word AUTHOR, we discover that one of its definitions is GOD. That’s audacious at best. But what does it mean? It means we get to create a world entirely of our own making. We get to decide what it looks like, who and what populates it, and best of all, …
Continue reading “The Unreliable Narrator”
Let me start by saying this is not a rant. No, it’s rather an earnest endeavor to help us all get to grips with our insanity. In some of us it’s stark and raving, in others it’s a mild form of disorientation. Both can be managed, if not cured. I should add that the …
Continue reading “Writing Disorders and What to Do About Them”
We spend months, years, writing a book of dazzling brilliance. We might be the only ones who think so, but hey, it was so hard, such a long process, such a fun process, such a tortured, frenetic, creative, maddening, exhilarating process, that only something splendid could emerge. You know, like a baby, who every mother …
Continue reading “Drown or swim in a saturated book market”
All cliches have a kernel of accuracy; they are like stereotypes, and can be just as damaging or disparaging. A dancer who’s too old for the stage; a writer who must supplement her income while she continues to chase publication. The belief, those who can’t do, teach, rests on the premise that an artist who is …
Continue reading “Those who can’t do, teach: the cliche that misses the point”