writing tipsTag
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September 12, 2018
How to Finish Your Damn Book - For Beginners!
I often joke that writing a novel is like running a marathon---only no one bothers to tell you what the route is. When the gun goes off, you’re just supposed to head off in whatever direction you think ...
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September 02, 2018
Show Me the (Writing-Grant) Money!
Hello, and Happy September! Thanks to the excellent folks at Open Book for inviting me here, and thanks to you for tuning in, lovely readers-who-I’m-guessing-are-mostly-also-writers.All right, let’s ...
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June 21, 2018
On the business of writing
In 2002, when I formed my writing group (still going strong!) with June Hutton and Mary Novik, we made a promise that we would always, always share our experiences with the business of writing—the shadowy ...
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October 03, 2017
Writers & Money - Part Two
This is the second in a series of surveys that I posted in order to get an idea of how different writers manage to make ends meet. You can read the first response here: http://open-book.ca/News/Writers-and-Money ...
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August 31, 2017
Characters. Emotions. Relationships. Action.
In junior high, my grade seven English teacher taught us about conflict in narrative: man against man; man against nature; man against self; and man against society. To be honest, I never really found ...
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August 30, 2017
Humour and Children’s Books
I don’t think I was raised in a particularly funny family. My dad was often described as being extremely intelligent, but I don’t think I ever heard someone call him funny.Growing up, I recognized ...
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August 29, 2017
Interview with Ryan North
Today we’re talking to writer Ryan North!Ryan is the creator of Dinosaur Comics and the writer of The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl comic series. He also wrote 35 issues of the Adventure Time comic series. ...
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August 28, 2017
Writing Alone and Out Loud
I’ve always wanted to be the type of person who writes in coffee shops. A few years ago, I was visiting a friend in LA and I had one goal: to sit in a coffee shop and write. It felt like the LA thing ...
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August 25, 2017
6 Marketing Tips for Debut Authors
Publishers are great partners, but they don’t usually do the heavy lifting in terms of marketing—especially for debut authors. In a partnership both parties have to pull their weight, which requires ...
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August 24, 2017
Revising Your Vomit Draft
Every time I sit down to revise a new picture book (aka vomit draft), I can’t remember how to do it. How can I turn something terrible into something better? How do I make things actually happen in ...