O, ‘To Be Poor, Misunderstood, Overlooked’ In this blog-heaving era, you sometimes can find comments as compelling and as nuanced as the writings they follow. An instance of this occurs this week at Writer Unboxed where Simon & Schuster author Jael McHenry is followed in her post by the literary agent Donald Maass. Taken together, her original post… Read More
In The Season Of Giving: Unwrap The Truth For Your Creative Loved Ones
A Token Of Your Esteem: Honesty The greatest gift you can give to a creative friend or relative sometimes is a compassionate, thoughtful, patient negativeresponse. Not negative in terms of how you say it or any intention of being hurtful. Exactly the opposite: negative in the sense of an authentic, truthful reaction in a world… Read More
Mission Critical At Writer Unboxed’s UnConfab in Salem
Reviewing? What’s Your Motive? Next week, I’ll be leading a session on criticism — “When To Listen And What To Hear” — at Writer Unboxed’s “Un-Conference” event in Salem, Massachusetts…where they know a few things about being critical. That session and this column are not about the more extreme moments in consumer review that have… Read More
"Visionaries on the Decks": Storytelling
“To Declare Your Story’s Intent” There are things important to you. You hurt. You know stuff. I don’t. You see things that I cannot…You have everything you need, including the courage to declare your story’s intent. — Donald Maass, Writing 21st Century Fiction Not for nothing am I looking forward to the November 3-7 Writer… Read More
Publishing, Between Revolution and Revolt
Follow that burning fuse. It runs between these two curiously different words. We may need to think about which of them is closer to us. Revolution. Pretty comfortable. Thanks to Madison Avenue, we nowadays say “revolution” for every change, from geopolitical alliances to bathroom tissue. Revolt. Not so comfortable. More acute. Something or someone feels out of control. It’s an uprising, not a downfalling. Dangerous. Read More
Self-Publishing’s Parallel Disruptions
It comes as news to no one in the industry! the industry! that self-publishing is controversial. We may tend, however, to think of it as controversial for that industry, while not looking at what it can mean for writers and writing. It is, in fact, a development full of argument not only for publishers but also for literature. Read More