Tools and Craft

Doing It The Write Way

October 30th, 2006 · 1 Comment

Today’s rant is courtesy of the husband. He casually mentioned that he was reading Copyblogger — a great post about ending your articles — and he noted something irritating in the comments section: a writing coach insisting that there was only one good way to brainstorm: hers. As he discussed writing with the ending in […]

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Highly Effective Blogging: Just Like Highly Effective Writing

May 26th, 2006 · 3 Comments

Though we are (typically) late to the game, we are going to play along with ProBlogger’s “Habits of Highly Effective Bloggers” game. This, of course, suggests that we are a highly effective blogger. As it turns out, the habits that make for good blogging also make for good writing. Who knew? So, what does make […]

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In Praise of the Serial Comma

February 9th, 2006 · 6 Comments

Far be it for us to name names (Jill), but there are people out there who don’t take the serial comma seriously (Jill). They see it, at best, as something redundant (Jill). They see its omission as a way to raise the blood pressure of perfectly nice people (BS). Some people see its absence as […]

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Yeah, But What’s For Dessert?

January 11th, 2006 · 1 Comment

Far too many writers have longed for the opportunity to suffer from Second Novel Syndrome, only to discover the disease is at least as debilitating as puberty. And like adulthood, SNS may be something you live with until a kind-hearted friend takes you aside and says, “Dude, seriously, people are getting creeped out by you […]

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Judging Writing

December 8th, 2005 · 7 Comments

In an article in the New York Press, Sam Sacks takes exception with writing workshops. Where one once found creativity and free-flowing ideas, the experience now lends itself to to an inevitable sense of sameness. He cites Best New American Voices 2006 as Exhibit A of workshopping gone wrong. The question Sacks dances around is […]

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Finally

December 5th, 2005 · Comments Off on Finally

Some authors simply don’t end well. Neal Stephenson, for example. The man will write forever to avoid ending a book. Also, he seems to have a lot of extra paper or maybe stock in a paper factory. His books tend to rip-roar (in a very broad sense of the term) along before doing everything they […]

File Under: Books/Mags/Blogs · Tools and Craft

Building An Intimate Relationship: Writing Partnerships

November 14th, 2005 · Comments Off on Building An Intimate Relationship: Writing Partnerships

In our long career, the only writing partner we’ve had is the husband. As far as collaborative processes go, it worked surprisingly well. Unlike traditional fiction partnerships, we wrote in a shared editing environment. This, of course, meant the poor man had to wait until we were satisfied with his commas and apostrophes before we […]

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Interesting, But Off-Base

September 15th, 2005 · 6 Comments

We like radical notions (especially those that start with, “Maybe we should go out for Chinese food tonight”), but prefer solid plans (“Let’s go out for Chinese food tonight”). A plan to deal with the morass that is book returns certainly would catch our attention, but as we read one publisher’s call to arms, we […]

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The Secret Life of Apostrophes

August 29th, 2005 · 2 Comments

Today’s first post comes courtesy of the husband. While in some households, his accompanying statement would be taken as a joke, we never jump to conclusions: “How come nobody told me about the rule where you’re supposed to put an apostrophe after words that end in vowels? That could come in handy.” Bob’s Quick Guide […]

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Helpful Tips: How To Guarantee Rejection

August 25th, 2005 · Comments Off on Helpful Tips: How To Guarantee Rejection

Though some authors seem to know instinctively the best, most expeditious, ways to get rejected, others require a primer. For those souls, Deidre Knight and Justin Knight of The Knight Agency have put together a helpful list of things to do to ensure immediate rejection: But we’ll confine ourselves to encouraging writers with ways to […]

File Under: Agents · Tools and Craft