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What Do Writers Want? Goal Setting for Scribblers and Other Creatives

What Do Writers Want? Goal Setting for Scribblers and Other Creatives

Setting and meeting your goals for your life as a career author doesn’t have to be a SMART formula that smacks of the Human Resources Department. If SMART works for you, then great. But if such a linear, corporate approach leaves you cold (as it does me), here are some looser, livelier ways to map out a career strategy for you as a writer.

Seven Ways to Jumpstart Your Imagination

Seven Ways to Jumpstart Your Imagination

New year, new ideas! We’re all planning our writing for 2023 now, but we need to make sure that we prime the pump throughout the year. Here are seven ways to jumpstart your imagination that you can write right into your calendar:

READING: A Writer’s Best and Most Constant Muse

READING: A Writer’s Best and Most Constant Muse

As an agent, author, and former acquisitions editor, I’m always stunned when aspiring writers tell me that they don’t have time to read (don’t ever say that, it’s a red flag, seriously). Writers read, and good writers read a lot. (That’s why agents and editors will often ask you what you’re reading and/or start a conversation about books, to see if you walk the talk.) If you need any more motivation, here’s a round-up of famous authors on the importance of reading for writers.

5 Ways to Impress an Agent

5 Ways to Impress an Agent

Getting an agent can be a challenge. Given the sheer volume of queries agents receive—such largesse that many agents find it impossible to accept unsolicited queries—it’s not easy to make you and your project stand out. Here are some tips to help you to capture an...

13 Ways to Maximize Your Writing Pleasure

13 Ways to Maximize Your Writing Pleasure

For me, the worst part is the first draft, which is always somewhat of a slog. I love it and dread it at the same time. It’s like running a marathon when you’ve forgotten how to run. But you haven’t really, you just keep putting one foot in front of the other. Bird by bird.

When I remember this, the writing is not quite so hard. And I am reminded that writing is not all angst and adverbs. Sometimes it’s actually—dare I say it—fun. There are undeniable pleasures, however fleeting or abstruse or just plain unfathomable to Other People (non-writers) they may be. Keeping them in mind can help us enjoy the writing process more, even on those days when we struggle to make our word count.

The next time you sit down to write, notice—and applaud!—when you…

10 Things Not to Say to an Agent When You Pitch Your Project

10 Things Not to Say to an Agent When You Pitch Your Project

It’s conference season again, that wonderful time of year when we agents listen to hundreds of pitches—some good, some bad, and some ugly. Here’s what not to say. (And yes, these are real lines from real-life pitches.) #1 My villain is so bad he kills the dog. It’s...

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