Oct 20, 2020 | On Writing
During this wild and crazy pandemic year I planted my first potager garden. Something I’d always planned to do but finally managed to pull off. Like writing my first novel. I learned a lot, and a lot of what I learned applied to writing as well as gardening. You amend...
Oct 13, 2020 | On Writing
With the summer now officially over, we all go back into school mode, sharpening our pencils and our plots, renewing our commitment to writing. As artists we never stop learning, and many of us take advantage of the many conferences, workshops, classes, critique...
Sep 29, 2020 | On Writing
One of the most common questions you can expect to hear when you pitch your work to agents and editors is this: What are your comps? Comps are comparable titles. That is, profitable books similar to yours that can help support the idea that your project can find an...
Sep 22, 2020 | On Writing
One of the most often overlooked tools in the storyteller’s toolbox is the organizing principle. All kinds of stories can benefit from organizing principles—from memoir and literary fiction to creative nonfiction and genre fiction. An organizing principle is not the...
Sep 15, 2020 | On Writing
Everywhere I go I hear writers complain about the black hole that is every literary agent’s in-box—the slush pile—that dark and dangerous place where their queries and manuscripts go in, never to be seen again. Kind of like all those socks that go into the dryer,...
