Writer Unboxed

No bloggers in the world of online book reviewing have carved out such a distinct niche in so short a time as Sarah and Candy of Smart Bitches Who Love Trashy Novels. The duo are legendary for acute observations on the world of women’s fiction, and romance in particular, delivered with unbridled snark and a […]

Surfing the best of the writer’s blog so you don’t have to.
This week, Therese stumbled across the deliciously twisted ramblings of dark fantasy author Hal Duncan. His blog entry for this week is a must-read for writers. I’m rather fond of observation No. 7.
Over at Writer Beware, AC Crispin discusses the merits of e-publishing, […]

Last week, I assisted a group of 5th graders as they strove to turn Civil War biographies into poems. Though the kids were fascinated with pictures from the era - think walrus mustaches and sweeping gowns - in the end, they found the best prose came from focusing on bold and meaningful action, like being […]

And so it’s done, 450 pages of the best writing you are capable of at the moment. You’ve chased down every loose thread, expunged all the adverbs and adjectives possible, vetted every line of dialogue for authenticity and relevance. Then you went through and made sure every character tag wasn’t trite, every passive sentence was […]

My children think the term “tighty whities” is about the funniest thing in the world next to Captain Underpants, so I hope some young-at-heart person out there enjoys my odd post title today!
Ray Rhamey at Flogging the Quill recently demonstrated how an overplump piece of prose should be trimmed of its fat, leaving a clean-and-lean […]

Charlotte Dillon’s website, Charlotte’s Web, has been named one of Writer’s Digest’s top picks, and her listserve, The Romance Writers’ Community (RWC), is a great asset to ~2,000 romance writers who want to connect. Therese and Kathleen recently chatted with Charlotte about the importance of building associations in an otherwise lonely profession and how she […]

Surfing the best of the writers blogs, so you don’t have to.
This week WU received an important hat tip from agent/author Diedre Knight over our interview with Audrey Niffennegger. We’ll be posting Diedre’s interview soon; in the meantime, go check out her blog. It’s pretty killer.
At Crime Fiction Dossier, David lists the 2006 Gumshoe […]

James A. Michener may have passed away in 1997, but his lessons for the writer are just as relevant as they were 20 years ago. This man was the King of the Saga; he won a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction; he taught at Harvard University. So before I put James A. Michener’s Writer’s Handbook back […]

Before I start the main post, WU would like to wish everyone a happy vernal equinox. Go forth and clean out those closets!
Disney has made a cottage industry of direct-to-video sequels of their famous classic films. As a parent, my DVD library is replete with Lion King II, Lady and the Tramp II, Little Mermaid […]

Frosting as I’m going to use it here doesn’t refer to anything involving confectioner’s sugar, however it’s just as important to an author interested in presentation and consumption as it is to a baker. Frosting isn’t anything central to your story; it will never appear in an outline. Frosting refers to things like chapter […]

Surfing the best of the writer blogs so you don’t have to.
At Flogging, Ray’s latest edit shows why prologues aren’t the best way into a story…DVC trial takes a poignant turn: now Dan Brown’s wife (and principle researcher for the book) is under fire, and Brown is fuming…Buzzgirl tells us what summer releases Farrar, Straus, […]

Forgive me—I’m having anger management issues; that is, the post on anger I promised (Beyond the Crooked Eyebrow, 2) requires more research time before it’s ready for the world. Before I dive back into Ekman’s fabulous book, however, I wanted to offer a little story and maybe some food for thought.
My family kept a wooden […]