by Heidi Sussman, TWC Adult Student After hearing about it for a while, I decided that 2014 was the year to take the NaNoWriMo challenge. NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) happens every November when people commit to writing 50,000 words of a novel in 30 days. To…
Thanks to Christina Kapp, who facilitates TWC’s Poets Circle and teaches our Wednesday Young Storymakers class, for sharing her retreat journal with us! Friday It was definitely not a good time to disappear for the weekend. School had just started for my kids and I…
Inspired by TWC’s upcoming writing retreat, Michelle offers a whimsical fairy tale… Once upon a time, there was a timid young woman with a yen for writing and a monster desk-drawer dragon that fed on her work and kept her voice hidden from the world……
One of my teen writers was talking to me about a book she was reading this past week. In the space of three sentences, she had diagnosed why the writer’s technique was working and – even more importantly ― applied what he had done to…
by Daniele Walker, TWC Program Coordinator Our first week of Summer Intensives is underway. Twenty-five students, ages 10-17, are doing what they came for: writing, writing, writing. The experience definitely has been intense so far with morning warm-ups, genre workshops with some of TWC’s finest…
The Writers Circle is thrilled to welcome nonfiction writer and journalist, Lisa Romeo, to our roster of inspiring instructors. Here Lisa shares her perspectives on Hurricane Sandy, but more, she shows how, when we write about our lives, we can delve into universal truths that…
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 have been pondering the pace at which I write my novels. I’d thought that I’d been working on this latest book for five years now, until I realized just today that in fact it’s edging past six, since Memorial Day half a dozen years…
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…
Everything is illusion, the Buddhists tell us – our lives and loves, our fears and troubles, the very earth and air and we ourselves. None of this is real. This concept is intended to help us let go of our attachment to longing, hunger, desire.…
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…
