Samantha GarnerTag
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July 02, 2024
Promoting Your Book Online: Avoiding Burnout
Does anyone else remember back in the mists of time when you didn’t know your favourite writer had a book coming out until you saw it on the shelf? You may have attended a reading or read an interview ...
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April 30, 2024
Building a Writing Routine When You’re Bad at Routines
I’ve written before about my bad luck in developing a structured writing routine. I’m happy to report that in the time since I wrote that, I still haven’t developed a structured writing routine—but ...
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March 25, 2024
On Finding Inspiration Through Deconstruction
In my last column, I talked about the unexpected rewards of returning to the same themes and subject matter in your work. But there’s a related facet to this that I feel deserves its own examination—the ...
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February 21, 2024
On Writing the Same Book Over and Over
In a 2015 webchat on The Guardian’s site, Kazuo Ishiguro was asked about his varied subject matter. He replied:“My subject matter doesn't vary so much from book to book. Just the surface does. The ...
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December 29, 2023
When Life Influences Form
What’s the best form for your next writing project? Often, this is decided by the sort of thing you want to write. Your sprawling epic fantasy idea likely won’t work as a short story, for example. ...
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December 20, 2023
Get Cozy with Open Book: The Open Book Team on Our All-Time Coziest Reads
As the end of a busy year full of ups and downs approaches, we decided to focus on cozy comfort for our 2023 holiday feature – to share the books that bring us calm, comfort, and peace. We hope this ...
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November 30, 2023
7 Ways to Develop Secondary Characters
Many authors do a good job at developing their protagonist or POV characters. After all, readers will be in these characters’ heads throughout an entire book. But as many readers can attest to, sometimes ...
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October 04, 2023
Tips for Writing in a Hybrid Genre
Hybrid genres are on the rise, but many writers feel unsure about how to manage expectations of the different genres while writing, and how to market their finished product. As a reader and a writer, ...
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August 28, 2023
How Much Do Book Tropes and Aesthetics Matter?
If you’ve spent time on Twitter or Instagram recently, you may have noticed authors and readers sharing graphics that outline a book’s major tropes, or the aesthetics of a book through mood boards.I’ll ...
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July 31, 2023
Managing a Writing Career and Mental Illness
As someone who's dealt with chronic depression and anxiety for most of my life, I know how difficult it can be to balance mental illness and writing. Sometimes, the thought of working on my latest book ...