I made a deal with myself that I’m not allowed to blog until I’m caught up on my writing goals. My goals are very doable: four hours on Monday, four hours on Wednesday and two more hours before Sunday, but I’m constantly behind, and thus, no blogging. I’m cheating right now, and I may cheat [...]
Butt-in-chair stick-to-it-iveness
Feb 25th, 2010
I’m writing again for the first time in months and finding it difficult to sit still in my chair. Today I thought about what works and what doesn’t for me. What do I have to do to get from distracted-checking-my-e-mail-every-five-seconds Meghan to focused-writing Meghan? Here’s what works for me:
1. Make sure you’re in a quiet [...]
Link Love
Feb 20th, 2010
Am I the only one who doesn’t understand the point of ice dancing? The figure skating competitions were so much better. At least now I can get some work done (until Tuesday, when the women’s figure skating begins). And now for some links!
Here is some recommended reading for writers considering an MFA.
A great post from [...]
The Problem With Writers’ Groups
Feb 17th, 2010
I love my (former) writers’ group. They’ve read every chapter in my book at least twice and given valuable feedback, however …
The biggest problem with my book is that it still (after several revisions) doesn’t have a cohesive story arc. I’ve paid a plot specialist, I’ve read a plot book and plotted out my chapters [...]
Learning to write from bad writing
Feb 15th, 2010
When I was at the Santa Barbara Writers’ Conference several years ago, I heard a couple of community college English teachers lamenting the effects of reading bad writing on their creative writing. They counseled me against teaching at that level. Right now I’m reading an awful book. Just awful. It’s a modeling memoir, and I’m [...]
How much did you write this week?
Feb 12th, 2010
The original Writerland (a website I created for a class in my MFA program back in 2005) was very different from this one. It didn’t have a blog. Instead, it had a page for people to sign in and log how many hours they wrote each week, and it had forums, lots of forums. The [...]
Lots of great links this week!
Editor Alan Rinzler has tips for blending the backstory into your novel or memoir.
Both Kristan Hoffman and Rachelle Gardner’s guest blogger Rachel Starr Thompson ask Why Do You Write?
And lots of query letter advice this week!
Agent Nathan Bransford suggests you query in batches, not all at once. And in [...]
POL—The Lovable Bad Guy
Feb 11th, 2010
This post is the third in a series about my memoir, Paris on Less Than $10,000 a Day. Some of these posts will be about the craft of writing and others will be about the content of the book—everything from fashion and French things to body image and substance abuse.
* [...]
LOST Spoiler Alert
Feb 10th, 2010
I started this post on LOST last week and then never had time to finish it. I liked the second episode last night a little better, but so much of it this season is over-the-top far-fetched (not like smoke monsters and polar bears WEREN’T far-fetched), that it’s a bit annoying. I guess that’s what they [...]
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