Most highly creative people struggle with self-doubt. Am I good enough? Is the work good enough? The difficulty of “breaking in” to most any creative field makes it that much harder. You’re inundated with rejection notes. Passes at auditions. People criticizing you at every turn. But far worse is the Inner Critic – you know […]
A New Take on Pre-Writing
My steampunk class has spent the last month on prewriting, something that in my opinion was worth the price of admission all by itself. In the past, I’ve been a pantser, someone who sits down to write with a little idea and a lot of hope. But, after six revisions on my last book (no […]
Vision, or Saying No To Good Advice
Today I’d like to talk about staying true to yourself, even in the face of good advice. After several years in various writer’s groups I’ve noticed a trend. One, writers are very opinionated about other peoples’ work, and two, there always seems to be at least one person in the group that ends up as […]
Reading Journal
I was talking to one of my writer friends the other day about writing (what else would writer friends talk about?) and heard about a very cool idea. A reading journal. It’s a simple notebook you put next to you when you read and make notes on what works (and what doesn’t) in the books […]
Woot! Next Round of ABNA
In an exciting turn of events, Alex has made the Quarter Finalists cut for the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards. Only 250 folks make it out of 10,000 – top 2.5%, baby. In a crazy twist of fate I was chosen and one of the ladies in my writer’s group was not. Since she made the […]
Heads Up: Atlanta Writers Club Writing Contest
This is a direct copy of the email sent to me today, for those interested: Dear Alexandra,This is a reminder that the AWC 2011 Spring Writing Contest is accepting submissions now. The deadline is April 16. Send in your best work today and compete for cash prizes, an addition to your writing resume, a snappy certificate, […]
Dealing with Rejection
Rejection is a part of every writer’s life. It’s as essential to the journey as words, and as certain. But dealing with rejection well…. that pressure to succeed, that push to be great that lies within each one of us runs up against a hundred politely-worded letters telling us we haven’t made it…. and grinds […]
The Gun Range: or, Control
In my writer’s group there are two gun nuts: one, a large bald tattooed guy, set off my instincts immediately. But, that could be that he’s large and tattooed. I didn’t actually notice the gun until Saturday, when he brought it out to show the group. The second is a fifty-something woman with short, gunmetal […]
Decisions, Decisions
As I wrote about earlier in the week, I found out I am accepted to both the Odyssey and KU’s Novel Writing workshops. Woot! Sadly, they happen in the same timeframe, so I had to choose. After talking to Kij Johnson and several students she recommended, as well as doing some research on Odyssey, I […]
Small Triumphs & a Happy Dilemma
Well, it’s been a crazy week – and a good one, full of lots of little triumphs. I found out on Thursday I made it to the second round of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards (yay me!)…. which puts me competing against only a thousand people instead of ten thousand. Here’s hoping I make it […]
