Article Archives

Your Way

by Jennifer Paros

Recently I was listening to a radio program in which Marc Allen was being interviewed. Marc Allen is one of the founders of New World Library–a very successful publishing house—and has written a book entitled Type- Z Guide to Success: A Lazy Person's Manifesto to Wealth and Fulfillment. On the show he talked about how years ago, when he had just turned thirty and was unemployed with no money, he decided to do an exercise he had heard of called “Ideal Scene.” In “Ideal Scene” you write down the best life scenario (or where you’d like to be in five years) you can imagine for yourself.

Jennifer ParosApril 12, 2008Comment

Authors Need Authors

by Katherine Pryor

At last summer’s four-day PNWA writers’ conference, over 400 writers competed for the attention of about 30 agents and editors. Each room was a whirlpool of ambition that threatened to suck up every ounce of integrity around it. Agents were accosted in the hallways, bathrooms, and elevators. A conference is a writer’s chance to make a great impression, deliver the perfect pitch, and get the ultimate pay-off, those beautiful four little words: “Send me your stuff.”

Katherine PryorMarch 15, 2008Comment

Top Six Novel Writing Mistakes

by James Thayer

I run a freelance editing service (www.thayerediting.com), and I teach novel writing at the University of Washington extension school. Editing and teaching, I see six prospect-killing mistakes time and time again, errors so profound that once spotted an agent or editor will know there’s no point reading farther.

James ThayerMarch 15, 2008Comment

The Voice

by Jeff Ayers

It was during the height of my mid-life crisis that I heard the voice. Due to a departmental reorganization, I had just lost my dream job and went from being a supervisor to a clerk, pay cut and all. I was depressed and felt alienated at work, and my family and friends were both confused and alarmed.

William KenowerMarch 15, 2008Comment

Collections

by Jennifer Paros

When I was around the age of seven, I was in my room writing one day. It was not something I had to write for school; I just wanted to write a story. I sat at my desk with paper in front of me and then I stood at my desk with paper in front of me, and then I started to walk around my room. Apparently, I didn’t know what I wanted to write, but I knew I wanted to write.

Jennifer ParosFebruary 2, 2008Comment

Write It! How to Overcome Roadblocks, Finish Your Project, and Get It Out There

by Brian Mercer

It took me ten years to write The Kaladrious Reflection, an epic science fiction trilogy. My next book, a 110,000-word mainstream novel, I finished in just ten weeks. What follows are the techniques I used to streamline the writing process, to go from taking years to completing my projects, to finishing in only weeks.

Brian MercerFebruary 2, 2008Comment

The Best Unfinished Book I Ever Read

by Bill Kenower

It’s not often as a writer that you get a chance to watch another writer, let alone a celebrated writer, wrestling with a story, but that is just what you will be treated to if you pick up F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Last Tycoon (or The Love of The Last Tycoon, as it was renamed by Mathew Bruccoli in his updated 1994 edition).

William KenowerFebruary 2, 2008Comment