Just how does an aspiring novelist find his way to becoming the head of a brand-new, paradigm-shifting division of a major publishing house? For Brendan Deneen, it’s a circuitous route that lead to becoming the head of Macmillan Entertainment, the book-to-film division of Macmillan Publishing. His untraditional approach to getting things…
A lot of my students are coming to an interesting moment in their writing. They’re nearing the end of their drafts – long, hard-earned manuscripts that they’ve been crafting for months – sometimes years. But they know they’re not finished. In fact, their first sentence…
by Lisa Romeo, TWC Instructor “You’re kind of cranky. But in a good way.” Last night, the final night of an 11-week memoir and personal essay class, a writer who attended each session (despite complicating situations in her life), said this to me by way…
In our last post, we invited all our students to submit short stories about our crazy new characters, Amelia, Maurice and Felix. But here, I want to take a minute to speak to many of you who – like me – like to write A…
When my son got lice a few years ago – quite common among the elementary school set – I came to appreciate the true meaning of “nitpicking”. Plucking those tiny, disgusting nits from the roots of his baby fine hair was tedious, but necessary work.…
This is a continuation of the past two posts on surviving – no, succeeding in the challenging new publishing environment. Check out Brave New World of Words – Part I and What I Learned at Author (R)evolution Day – Part II, to see how the…
When I created Shira, the heroine who narrated my novel, The Fruit of Her Hands, I found myself wrestling with a fairly common problem for storytellers – how to make scenes that my narrator could not witness as vivid and dramatic as if she’d been…
I’ve been kind of quiet lately on the blog that I began, but there’s a reason. With everything growing on steroids here at TWC, I’ve been stealing what little free time I have to DO MY OWN WRITING! Yes, I have not given up and…
More on Revision from TWC’s Associate Director, Michelle Cameron. If you missed Part 1, check it out here. Once you are satisfied that the structure, character development, story arc and descriptions stand up to scrutiny, it’s time for… STEP #3 – SEE THE TREES (and…
There’s nothing like the excitement of starting a new work or the infatuation you might have with having written it. But professional writers are really made by the serious way they approach the revision process. It’s important to take time with your revisions and not…
Tips on starting with a bang, from TWC Associate Director Michelle Cameron: Picture this scene: A man lands at an airport. The plane taxis on the ground for nearly fifteen minutes, while all around him, people are talking on their cell phones, hoping to be…
We writers love the mystery of a story’s unfolding. Half the time, honestly, we’re not quite sure where it’s going ourselves. Isn’t that part of the fun – the exploration and discovery? And isn’t that the same amazing journey we want to share with our…
