3 Chicks and Some Books

I began reading Louise Glück’s poems around the time I handed in the final draft of my first book. Now I can see that the book was a culmination of a decade of work and obsession, but at the time, without the manuscript to anchor my thoughts, I felt adrift. I had to come down from the high of achieving what I had set out to do and had to face the blank page again. For a year, I plunged into another project, until I realized that I was rewriting my first book and that I did not yet have the depth and experience to give the new story the justice it deserved. For another year, I hardly wrote at all. I had a few real life adventures, but for the most part, I felt that I was waiting at my desk for words that would not arrive. Without my usual way of expressing what I saw and felt, it seemed to me that the world had lost its texture
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http://lithub.com/tenacity-the-key-to-the-writing-life/

Do you write non-fiction but secretly want to write a novel?

Are you confused about the process? Do you think you’re not creative enough, or worry that you don’t have enough ideas? 

Are you afraid that writing a novel might be a waste of time with no return on investment or practical use in your business?

http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2017/02/15/write-fiction-as-non-fiction-author/

Have you ever read a book that just fell flat?

The author didn’t necessarily do anything wrong. They created strong characters, killer conflict and a clever plot, beautiful scene descriptions, and so on. But still the book fell short for you, and you just can’t place your finger on what could have made the story more dynamic.

“Eh, it was just a bit formulaic,” you say when a friend asks how you enjoyed your latest read.

Today, I’m here to make the case that disappointing stories aren’t the result of sticking too closely to story structure (or to any other established writing techniques, for that matter), but rather sticking too closely to the basics of those techniques.

Vague statement. I know.

But I’m going to explain everything you need to know about how we, as authors, can move beyond the basics and elevate our stories into a realm of dynamism that will knock our readers’ socks off.

Click here to read the full article

In setting out to write Future Sex, Emily Witt 

I hoped to define what she once considered an “interim state”: the sexual identity of being a single woman unconstrained by long-term reciprocated love and partnership. The language used to describe relationship statuses within this state, such as the too all-encompassing “dating” and outdated “lovers,” she argues, has lost its meaning in the 21st century. This leads her to another query—perhaps this state isn’t so interim after all
http://lithub.com/the-evolution-of-sex-writing/

Every fiction writer beyond the beginner stage knows about point-of-view.  It’s the perspective from which a story is told.  It’s the eyes through which we are seeing, the ears through which we are hearing, the mind through which we’re processing, the heart through which we’re feeling.

POV is mostly the protagonist’s, but it can also be any other character’s (as in multi-POV), an observer’s (think Nick Carraway), or even the author’s.  The prime directive of POV is also well known: keep it consistent, no head hopping within a scene

http://writerunboxed.com/2017/01/04/immersive-pov/