Process
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How to find the right crit group
It is daunting joining a group of strangers and sharing your work. If you are an introvert writer like I am, it is completely terrifying, and the worst part is that it could end up being all for nothing. Not all crit groups are good crit groups. Not all crit groups are the right fit. Read more
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A Great Opening Line
You’ve probably heard it before, but the opening line of your story can make all the difference when you are in the submission phase of your story. And yet it eludes many writers. We are too close to the story. We are sure we need to start where we started when we wrote the first Read more
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Should you outline your project?
The short answer is yes. But I understand your hesitation. For years I resisted outlining, preferring my stories evolve organically. And this worked for me… kinda. Really interesting twists would show up, characters were able to define themselves on the pages and I wasn’t trying to force anything to conform to a preconceived idea. But Read more
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The laundry list description
We want to establish how our characters (especially our MC) look from the beginning. It feels important to us because we have a clear view of them that we want to give our readers. Unfortunately, most people stumble into a bad habit early on in their writing of making a list and it sticks out Read more
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Fail like a M*F* boss
I finally heard back from an agent who had my manuscript. Rejected. The bottle of Moet and Chandon must wait for another day to be popped. But the truth is, I am kinda relieved. Not because I didn’t want her as an agent I would have loved to have worked with her, but because I Read more
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How to be ripped to shreds with grace (writing reviews)
In college, peer writing reviews never went very well. Either people were too nice or too mean or too vague. And no one wanted to hear it. Usually professors wouldn’t allow us to talk and defend our work, so we didn’t have the option of yelling at our reviewers. Sometimes people couldn’t help it. I Read more
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Better get started now
I see it frequently. I lived it myself. People toil away at their jobs they hate and clutch to their dreams, keeping them tucked away secret and safe. They imagine a day when things will just fall into place, someone will stumble across their work and give them the career they want. So years pass Read more
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Themes
Themes. Be careful what you wish for. Love will find a way. It’s always darkest before the dawn. Oh wait, are those themes or cliches? I remember back in high school English themes were all the rage. Kafka, Hemingway, Plath, all very theme oriented writers. But what about modern writers? What is the theme of Read more
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When you decide you can’t fail
Writers are notoriously pessimistic, and for good reason. It is effing hard to publish a book, no matter which route you take. First you spend months, years, decades even writing a novel, than you edit the hell out of it for more months, years, decades. Then you pick a publishing path and go down it Read more
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An experiment in short storying
I believe I have mentioned I have a hard time writing short stories, which is disapointing because there are so many great opportunities available for short story writers. the least not being some credits to your name. Last night I was reviewing some notes and came across a novel idea I had hastily scrawled out Read more
LC W. Allingham 