While today’s topic is not as much about the actual creative process of being a writer, it’s been on my mind a fair bit lately. Should writers network? Should we make a blatant attempt to seek out writer friends? What is it that other writers really do for our writing lives? To answer the first…
Read MoreOn Writing Well: Using All Your Senses
One of the hardest things to communicate as a writer is immediacy. As I sit here at my desk, I am very aware of all my senses- the sound of the keyboard tap-tapping as I write, the slightly acrid taste of my coffee, the glow of the overhead lamp, reflected on the screen- I am…
Read MoreOn Writing Well: Making Verbs Work
Everyone Needs Verbs Have you ever read a sentence without a verb? No, right? It’s impossible! A few phrases and fragments may squeeze by without employing a verb or two, but any sentence worth it’s weight can’t manage without a couple of verbs. Verbs are the building blocks of writing. Without them, no action would…
Read MoreWhere to Hunt for Writers!
Writers may have a reputation for being solitary, reclusive beings, but that doesn’t mean that they should write in a vacuum. Sites like HubPages offer great means of getting feedback on one’s work… but sometimes written comments from semi-anonymous readers are not enough. Sometimes even the most solitary beings require in-person interaction. The problem with interacting with…
Read MoreOn Writing Well: How to Handle Literary Influences
As aspiring writers, we all wish that we could write like the literary giants, many of whom we have admired for most of our lives. Yet, when it comes down to starting work of our own, we are often uncertain of how to handle these influences of the literary heroes whose work we have read…
Read MoreOn Writing Well: Getting Over Writer’s Block
Every writer, especially one who has recently finished a long piece of work, confesses to felling a kind of creative exhaustion. A pretty significant fraction of writers also go on to describe what may be only be named writer’s block, where they are unable to get words on a page. Very often, writer’s block creates…
Read MoreOn Writing Well: An Interview with Melanie Gideon
Melanie Gideon’s A Slippery Year is one of my personal favorite memoirs. It also stayed on the New York Times’ top ten best-seller list for many weeks, and received rave reviews from NPR, NY Post, San Francisco Chronicle, New Yorker’s Book Bench, Christian Science Monitor, San Francisco Magazine, Elle, Kirkus, Booklist, BookPage and others. I…
Read MoreOn Writing Well: Writing Groups
Writing can often feel like an isolated occupation, especially when you want feedback on your writing, or are working on a longer piece that takes a great deal of time. Many writers work from home, and miss the companionship and collaboration that other occupations provide. Joining or creating a writing group may alleviate the sense…
Read MoreOn Writing Well: How to Create Brand Awareness as a Writer
As a writer, it’s becoming more and more important to market yourself to your readers, to create a brand perception by which you will be recognized so that your readers are able to seek out your writing. Wonderful as it sounds, very few writers successfully manage to create enough awareness of themselves, let alone create…
Read MoreOn Writing Well: An Interview with Mark Coker, CEO of Smashwords
As a part of our On Writing Well series we reached out to Mark Coker, the CEO and founder of Smashwords, an eBook publishing company. As so many of our Hubbers have literary ambitions and given the growing success of eBooks, I believe that Mark’s advice on writing well will be very valuable to our…
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