It’s that time of year again, when all our thoughts turn to gift-giving. If you have a writer in your life, The Writers Circle has some suggestions that celebrate that special avocation and make your writer feel cherished! Writers love reading, of course (Why else…

Giving yourself permission and time to write can be difficult. Life tends to get in the way – the kids, the job, all those everyday demands. This year it’s even more challenging, given that so many of us feel, well, distracted by the result of the…

        “I go into the Muslim mosque and the Jewish synagogue and the Christian church and I see one altar.” Rumi – 13th century Persian Sufi poet In this turbulent election season when divisive rhetoric threatens to tear the fabric of our…

by Mally Becker, TWC Outreach & Development The person sitting next to you at a dinner party leans in and asks: “So, what’s your book about?” They mean well. Of course they do. But you go blank. Or you answer, “Ummm.” Because how do you…

by Michelle Cameron, Director, The Writers Circle I’ve never before had the opportunity to research my novels in the places they happened. When I was writing both The Fruit of Her Hands and my current work, a variety of factors kept me at home – not least…

by Jeff Campbell, author and instructor at The Writers Circle Storytelling is storytelling, no matter what medium. That is the second lesson I learned at the annual SCBWI New Jersey conference on June 4 and 5. Not only that, I learned it on the first…

by Jeff Campbell, author and instructor at The Writers Circle Writing is often considered a lonely profession. But it doesn’t have to be. That’s the lesson I learned last weekend. On June 4 and 5, I attended the annual conference of the New Jersey chapter…

Now that you’ve come up with your brilliant Elevator Pitch, drafted your query letter and the dreaded synopsis, it’s time to face the part of the process over which you have little control: actually finding an agent. Not only “an agent” but the RIGHT agent.…

Sarah Lyman Kravits knows what it takes to write a great college essay.  Not only is she the co-author of the Keys to Success college textbook series, but she’s read applications and interviewed candidates for the University of Virginia’s Jefferson Scholars program for more than…

Now that you’ve had the pleasure of boiling down your entire novel, memoir or nonfiction book into a single “elevator pitch” and tucked it neatly into your one-page query letter, it’s time to address the next big marketing piece: the dreaded synopsis! As Jane Friedman…

by Laurie Lico Albanese “Go with your passion,” was the phrase of the day at Stacey Gill’s Kick-Start Your Blog workshop held at The Writers Circle in Montclair this past Sunday.  “Focus on what you’re passionate about and put all that energy into the blog.” Stacey –…

by Mally Becker “This is the greatest time in history to be a writer,” declared David Henry Sterry. Because of all the publishing options now available, he and Arielle Eckstut, collectively The Book Doctors, assured a full-house of aspiring writers that our works-in-progress could be…