Let’s talk pitch. It what you “do” when you’re trying to get an agent or editor’s attention regarding your finished book. You know what I’m talking about, the book you spent years on, perfecting, and now’s it’s ready to be read by the world and what’s more, embraced. In the Book Writing World, Elizabeth […]
Perfect Pitch: by Devi Laskar Read More »
As writers, we are just like Greek mythic sculptor Pygmalion and our books are like Galatea to us. We are attempting to create the most perfect book for our readers. In a recent mentoring workshop in the Book Writing World, Elizabeth drew from the author Gilbert Sorrentino’s piece, “The Moon in Its Flight,” located in
Pygmalion, revisited Read More »
In the Book Writing World, Elizabeth has discussed time and again the “big” ingredients it takes to write a complete narrative/story/book/memoir. Sometimes it can help to put the main ingredients into a single sentence, a sort of pithy recipe. This is different from a PITCH that is used to, well, invite/entice/beg agents and outsiders to
As writers, we sometimes struggle with creating “an inner life” or a range of emotions for our central characters. In an effort to have stories that reflect realistic people with actual problems, we as writers could inflict our obligations and inconveniences on our characters. In a recent Book Writing World mentoring class, Elizabeth instigated an
In the Book Writing World, we have learned this about story structure: “The CRISIS is when the choice is made and the CLIMAX is when the choice is acted on.” That sounds good. Now, to the difficult question: What are your chracter’s choices? What happens after your character makes the first set of choices? How
Every writer has voices inside his or head, angels counseling us what to write, what details to include, what generalities to omit. Most of us don’t actually hear these voices…but we aware of them as we grapple with character and plot development, and try to finish writing our books. In the Book Writing World, Elizabeth
Governing by Committee Read More »
Our “job” as writers is to describe, describe, describe. This means that we as writers have to take what we are imagining and place it on the written page – share it with our readers. Sounds easy enough. But writing is hard and often we leave out something that could turn an otherwise okay description
Sum of our opportunities Read More »
First Loves Most of us get writers’ block. A lot. Then, inexplicably, the urge to clean the kitchen or watch bad TV takes over and before you can blink twice, the sun has set and another day has disappeared… The key to overcoming the experience of not being able to write is to keep the
Good morning. Having an extra day before the start of the week is kind of useful. But it does now feel like Monday, doesn’t it? How was your long weekend, my writers? I am opening this post so that through the week, I can add to it as I find tidbits I want to share.
Treasure: Quotes and Links and Prompts, Oh My! Read More »
Write down: An ice cream flavor A season Your favorite saying A class you never took but wish you had Something that’s in your dresser A texture that repels you Now: write your next scene and incorporate everything you wrote down in response to the list above. Surprise yourself.
Please confirm you want to block this member.
You will no longer be able to:
Please note: This action will also remove this member from your connections and send a report to the site admin. Please allow a few minutes for this process to complete.