Writing ProcessTag

Alex Pugsley on How the Title Story of His Striking New Collection Went from Multiple Rejections to Award-Nominated

Journey Prize winner and filmmaker Alex Pugsley's debut novel, Aubrey McKee was hailed as whip-smart and funny, with comparisons drawn to the likes of Robertson Davies, John Irving, and J. D. Salinger. ...

Playwright & Passe Muraille Artistic Director Marjorie Chan on Writing the Scenes That "Need to Get Out" First

Librettist and playwright Marjorie Chan, who serves as Artistic Director of Toronto's iconic Theatre Passe Muraille while also creating her own plays and librettos, has a knack for exploring power, ...

Bill Richardson on Sharing Writing Space with Irving Layton and Robertson Davies

"In this last week, there are seven days."In Bill Richardson Last Week (Groundwood Books, illustrated by Emilie Leduc), a child knows they've got a week to spend with their grandmother. But unlike ...

"I Knew I Wanted Big Stories" Susanna Fournier on Crafting Hundreds of Years of Dystopian History for Her Plays

Imagine creating not just a fully realized world, but an entire history that spans hundreds of years. That is the creativity Susanna Fournier brought to her suite of three plays, The Empire (Playwrights ...

Writing + Joy = A Revelation

For years I believed I was only a writer if I wrote every day. I would wake up early and take my laptop to the coffee shop nearby and sit in the corner and write. Words and words and coffee and more ...

'Write when the baby sleeps' and other impossible writing rules

Years ago, long before I had any kids, I read that Alice Munro wrote when her baby napped, so when I was pregnant with my first kid, I told myself I’d do the same. It was 2015, six years before my first ...

Guelph MFA Grads Simone Dalton and David Bradford on Family, Loss, Writing, and Community (Part 1 of 2)

You've made it into one of the most competitive MFA programmes in the country. Now what? Recent University of Guelph Creative Writing MFA alums Simone Dalton, an author and playwright, and David Bradford, ...

In Praise of Editors

I believe the most important relationship in publishing is between the author and the editor. It’s a fundamental partnership that turns ideas into prose and drafts into polished works. When the editing ...

What Makes a Good Writing Routine?

As I mentioned in a previous post, I'm fascinated by other people's writing routines. Not only am I just a somewhat nosy person (as many writers are, I imagine), but I don't have much in the way of a ...

On Writing Essentials

Much as I admire highly regimented and disciplined writers, that's simply not me. Believe me, I've tried! However, no matter how unstructured my writing day might be, there are five essentials that I ...