What is a writers’ workshop? What does such a critique and conversation do for the writer, and how should readers approach their task? You probably have your own answers to these questions, based on your own experiences with workshops and how good or bad they’ve been. One of the most important things a workshop does […]
A Community of Readers: A Look at Workshop by Elizabeth Stark Read More »
In this week’s writing classes we are playing with those moments in a story when something is revealed or withheld. These are two sides of the same coin. In April, I was reading Colum McCann’s story “Transatlantic” in The New Yorker (see links below) and came across a remarkable moment. Well, really two moments. Two veterans
Withholding and Revealing: What You Tell and When You Tell It by Elizabeth Stark Read More »
Today I finished the spell check on the latest revision of my novel and sent it off to my agent. Now I kind of want just to keep typing that sentence over and over again. I have this frozen elation—or is that terror? This morning over breakfast, I was reading book reviews in The Economist.
Hitting Send: Three Reasons to Write: by Elizabeth Stark Read More »
Re-entry is always a challenge. I have my comments back from my agent. There are six things she wants me to address (add, edit, massage). Six–and then we take the book out on the open market . . . This is exciting and nerve-wracking. I sat down on Monday to begin to address these
Finger Painting Your Book: by Elizabeth Stark Read More »
“. . . or you write a book and while you write it you are ashamed for every one must think you a silly or a crazy one and yet you write it and you are ashamed, you know you will be laughed at or pitied by every one and you have a queer feeling
I am deep in a final revision (final, that is, until the next round–led, I hope, by editors who want to publish my book or, if must be, by my agent) of my novel-in-progress. I thought I’d share a bit about my process for editing myself. Devi, our blog editor, recently re-published some of my posts
Writing is Rewriting . . . and Rewriting . . . and Rewriting . . . by Elizabeth Stark Read More »
This evening I will meet with my writing group to discuss the overhaul of my manuscript. Did it work? Is it better than the earlier version, worse or just different? What’s missing? What doesn’t make sense? What threads did I start and neglect to finish? Do they buy it? Did they love it? What will
Letter to Myself: Remembering What You Love About Your Writing: by Elizabeth Stark Read More »
“The most maddening paradox of recording is that what you hear in the playback does not resemble what you’re sure you played. You hear two tracks at once: what you desire and what you have produced. Notes dangle before you without their motivations, minues the physical struggle of playing them; my muscles twitch strangely while
Playing and Editing Read More »
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