“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” Samuel Beckett At the start of this summer, in June, my agent sent my new novel out to nearly a dozen publishers. I chronicled the process in blogs and newsletters and talked about it in class. I did this for two reasons. 1) […]
Update: On the Path to Publication: by Elizabeth Stark Read More »
Life just has no sense of pacing. Plot events come rushing, pell mell, with no opportunity to make sense of them: people die, people break-up, storms rage causing airplane delays mostly, or national crises, cats disappear, jobs are won and lost, children born . . . and then there are days and days of jumbled routine,
Life v. Fiction: By Elizabeth Stark Read More »
Five Things We Avoid That We’d Do Better To Embrace 1) Verbs: Make things happen in your sentences. Be alert for “There is/ are/ were” and “I felt/ heard/ saw/ noticed.” These usually can be cut and replaced with verbs, further into the heart of the sentence, that pack a much greater punch. Example: She
For Angie, a real writer. Happy Birthday! Today’s title comes from a Marge Piercy poem called, “For the Young Who Want To.” It’s an old favorite of mine, and it’s a damn good reminder. I guess it’s been on my mind, because I had to read it aloud in class last week when a student
The Real Writer is One Who Really Writes: by Elizabeth Stark Read More »
Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Go to: http://www.salon.com/writer/thais_derich/ A founding member of the BWW, Thais Derich is writing her first book, First Do No Harm: A Memoir, about birth and motherhood. She writes at SpinachandHoney.com and has contributed to SFGate.com’s Mommy Files and was a contributing food blogger for the San Francisco Examiner. Read her
Breaking News: BWW’s Thais Derich’s article is on Salon.com Read More »
First let me say: some of you know that my agent sent my book out to editors at publishing houses a few weeks back. Word is still not in! It’s been slow summertime, fourth of July meant a whole week off apparently for many of the hard-working denizens of New York City, and we have
Success Stories: Hers, Mine and YOURS: by Elizabeth Stark Read More »
I moved this weekend, rather suddenly. Of course, I’d been thinking and planning the move for a while, but the timing was in question and then suddenly we found the perfect house and got it and started paying rent and so of course we had to move! Moving means, alas, getting everything you want to
Packing Books: Worlds, Riches, An Enormous Number of Clowns: by Elizabeth Stark Read More »
This is a week off in the Book Writing World, a holiday from classes. But of course there is no holiday from writing. Or rather, taking a holiday may be part of the process—you may need time away from the project in order to return to it fresh, with eyes able to make sense of
Rules of the Writing Road: by Elizabeth Stark Read More »
My children demand stories of me. They call them “make-up” stories and they do not mean making up from a fight. They mean the battle itself of creating something from nothing, of piecing together characters and throwing problems at them and rallying those characters to take action and imagining the results of that action and
Make-up Stories: by Elizabeth Stark Read More »
“Don’t think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it’s good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.” – Andy Warhol I am stealing this quote from Devi’s blog earlier in the week—or last week rather. I am stealing it
The Writer’s Job: by Elizabeth Stark Read More »
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