Writer’s block may be the two most dreaded words in a writer’s vocabulary. We all know stories about authors who wound up stymied for months. I have my own theory about what triggers writer’s block. Make that two theories. And they don’t have much to do with putting...
Are you automatically discounting self-publishing? You might want to think again. It seems as if almost everyone wants to write a book at some time in their life, but getting published is getting harder and harder. Those authors who do manage to find an agent—and then...
Writing is most often a solitary business. All too often we writers have to motivate ourselves, isolate ourselves until our pages are done, pat ourselves on the back when things work out and console ourselves when they don’t. But it doesn’t have to be, even if you’re...
I’ve started writing restaurant reviews for a local magazine. I don’t do it for the money, that’s for sure. But I love food. As I wrote in one of my initial reviews, “when you’re raised in Rio de Janeiro and Paris by parents who appreciate fine dining, you’re in for a...
Writers as a group have refined the art of self-flagellation … and not only evaluating their own prose or verse when writing a book. “I didn’t do any writing,” my writing coach clients will say to me. Granted sometimes that means they didn’t even think about their...
When I was growing up in Paris, the French launched a campaign to keep their country’s language pure. As a 13-year-old who spoke Frenglish or Franglais (a mix of English and French) with her bilingual friends, I couldn’t imagine anything sillier. Now, I find myself...
If writing tops your list of resolutions or regrets, you could be missing out on more than you know. I was barely a teenager when I figured out that writing could help me sort out my emotions, which were on a rampage that would last longer than I would have liked....
Whether you want to promote a business or a cause, write the great American novel or simply sum up a lifetime for your friends and family, you don’t have to miss out any longer. Start with a brain dump, also known by my clients as The Big Sloppy Letter to Linden....
Everyone has a story to tell, and more and more people want to put theirs on paper. There is no reason not to. With the right approach, writing your memoir can wind up being a leisurely cruise down memory lane instead of a pile up.
Start by making a list of all the people in addition to yourself who will populate your story.
