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Procrastination and the Necessary Fight
Dani ShapiroIt’s always just me versus me. From the moment I wake up in the morning–pack my son’s lunchbox, scramble a couple of eggs, feed...
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On Finding Your Material
Sheila KohlerFinding our material is one of the most essential parts of our work as writers. It is difficult, first, to find material with heat—dangerous...
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What's in a Title?
Erika DreifusI learned lessons about “quiet” fiction back in 2001, when a literary agent began circulating my first book-length fiction manuscript...
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Writers and Self-Sabotage
Bonnie FriedmanI used to induce in myself awful states of envy. It took years to notice what I was doing, though, because it was so counter-intuitive
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Getting Unstuck
Caroline LeavittIf you’re a writer, you know the routine. You’re halfway in the middle of your novel or story and suddenly you feel stuck
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Huskies, Hackneys
Roxana RobinsonAll the fiction I write arises from the same sort of impulse: it’s a feeling of discomfort, a kind of unspecified anxiety, a need to uncover...
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What Do You Call a Text with No Arms and No Legs and No Head?
John MaderaWriting, sensu stricto, is also a visual art, and thus, the question of what visual artist or particular work of visual art has provided inspiration...
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In Search of the Perfect P.O.V.
Pamela ErensOnce upon a time I thought I could learn to write like George Eliot or Henry James. I wanted to be able to say things about my characters like...
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A Tightrope Walker's Guide to Writing
Stefan Merrill BlockHow? For many years—since long before I could call myself a writer—I’ve sat through the Q&A sections of authors’ book readings, impatiently...