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Change Your Mind. Try Something New. Write Something Better.
Lately, something’s been bothering me about the blog I’ve managed for more than four years: the person I was when I started the blog is not the person I am today. Or more precisely, the writer I was...
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Second Chances: Rewriting Our Stories
We all have stories. True stories, made-up stories, or ones that are a bit of both. Stories we’ve written down and stories we’ve lived. Stories that make us laugh, cry, or shudder. For writers, all of...
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“Do I Have Writing Talent?” You’re Asking the Wrong Question
Hemingway. Austen. Dickens. Woolf. Carver. We know these names well, these masters of their craft. Were they born with an elusive writing gene the rest of us just don’t have? We not-yet-famous writers...
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How to Get Your Short Stories Published in Lit Mags
Five years ago I would’ve said I was on my way to becoming a novelist. Today, my novels-in-progress have been shelved, but my short stories have been published in several lit mags and anthologies, and...
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Foolproof Strategies for Staying Creative During a Writing Slump
For the last two weeks, my four children and I have been stuck at home trying to extricate ourselves from the evil clutches of the dreaded “stomach flu.” One by one we came down with it, and its...
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3 Tips for Riding the Rejection/Acceptance Roller Coaster
The writing life is one never-ending roller coaster ride of rejections and acceptances, of form rejections and personal rejections, of thoughtful feedback and hurtful criticism. One day, you’re down in...
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8 Busy Moms Who Published Novels
By all accounts, I’m a busy mom. I gave up my teaching career a couple of years ago so I could stay home with my children—one school-aged, and one who has just turned two. Soon, I’ll no longer be a mom...
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3 Fiction Tips from Stephanie Vaughn’s “Dog Heaven”
Every so often, I discover a piece of writing I just can’t wait to share with others. The short story “Dog Heaven,” by Stephanie Vaughn, is one of them. I initially found the story on the New Yorker...
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4 Options for Improving Your Fiction
We writers can be impatient—not only with the process of writing and getting published, but with ourselves for not being perfect from the get-go. We readily accept the need for intensive training and...
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What Novelists Should Know About Short Fiction
When I first started writing seriously, all I wanted was to publish a novel. I thought my intentions were honourable—that I wasn’t just another wannabe with dreams of making it big—but there was always...
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