Writing workshops can be wonderful. They can connect with other writers, build community, and add strong points to your writing CV.
But workshops can also be perplexing and downright frustrating. Whose feedback, if anyone’s, should you prioritize? Do you have to take every suggestion into consideration, even the ones with which you disagree? Read on for Jessica Hatch’s best tips—gleaned from attendance in adjudicated workshops in three different countries—on making the most of your time in the Cone of Silence and beyond.
Read MoreLife can be heavy sometimes, but you can’t beat yourself up about not showing up at the writing desk. In these instances, it’s not a lack of motivation but a lack of resources that’s keeping you from moving forward. If you get mad at yourself for that, it’d be like getting mad at your car for not moving forward if it ran out of gas. This post includes five things you can do when writing doesn’t come easily.
Read MoreInstead of forcing my brain to create a lackluster and possibly unconvincing beat sheet, I took my solution straight from the pages of the Player’s Handbook (Fifth Edition) and made all characters involved “roll for it.”
Read MoreThis coming Saturday I’ll be in conversation with historical novelist (and my freelance client) Sarah Holz about one of her comparative titles, Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall. In case any part of that sentence doesn’t entice you to register for the live conversation, I hope the following “getting to know you” conversation will.
Read MoreWe’ve all been there. We ask ourselves, and our writing mentors, “How do I know when the work is done?” We agonize over all this and hate ourselves for it. We know that we need to find a way to accept that “pretty good and done” is better than “perfect and never done,” but we just can’t seem to snap ourselves out of our perfectionist tendencies.
This post helps to break the cycle.
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