Last week the creative division at my company had a fantastic symposium. All day, we heard impressive visiting speakers from many fields talk about belief and purpose in one’s work. The event took place at the gorgeous Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. (PS: look how pretty, you should move to Kansas City, everything here is amazing. Here is the outside:
Category: Writing Matters
Last week a commenter on my blog asked a question about how to research a setting you don’t know well — or one you’ve never been to at all. I had been thinking about this very thing lately! Fantasy and science fiction writers have to go to the trouble of inventing a whole new world, but unless they have inconsistencies,
“My novel is similar to another one. What do I do?” “Is my story too much like another book?” Authors worry a lot about whether their story is original enough. And I think they worry about it too much. What if someone told you they were going to write some young adult books about a boy who goes away to
One of the main ways that people get a book of poetry published, particularly a first book, is by winning a poetry book contest. There are dozens of these book contests out there. A few years ago, I read for one of them, helping to make the first cut of submissions. It was not an anonymous contest, and the applicants provided short
Once in a while I’ll hear somebody ask this question. Many writers prefer publishing under their real names, taking full credit and full responsibility for what they spent so much time creating. And that makes a lot of sense! But there are many good reasons to use a pen name, and here are a few of them. If you’re deciding
Here are the books I’ve read and enjoyed lately! I sometimes feel a little self-conscious about how eclectic my reading tastes are, but that’s not going to change, so I should just get over that, right? The Name of the Wind, Patrick Rothfuss . I saw Mr. Rothfuss talk at a nerdy convention a couple of years ago, and
Hey friends! I’ve gotten several questions lately about how to punctuate and set up dialogue, and how to avoid repetitions of “he said, she said.” I’m not surprised, because English is weird, even for English speakers. I’m going to share those questions along with the answers here. Let’s dive in! When do I write “said Bryn” and when do