Writer Unboxed

“That nothing is static or fixed, that all is fleeting and impermanent, is the first mark of existence. It is the ordinary state of affairs. Everything is in process. Everything—every tree, every blade of grass, all the animals, insects, human beings, buildings, the animate and the inanimate—is always changing, moment to moment.” – Pema Chodron [...]

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1. Habit I sing ALL the time. In the car, in the shower, in the bedroom while I’m ironing. My poor musically inclined boyfriend is very nice about it — maybe because I’m ironing his shirts — but the truth is, I’m not very good. I can hear the pitches and modulations in a melody, but [...]

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Today’s post is intended for any writers who occasionally encounter… well, let’s call them obstacles. I’m talking about the sort of thing that grinds your writing to a halt. Whether it writer’s block, the conspicuous absence of the muse, or just the feeling that every single word you write stinks worse than Satan’s dirty gym [...]

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Aside from the immediate benefit of getting yourself away from the computer screen and the blackhole of the Internet, studying movies and TV shows is a great way to enhance your storytelling skills. No, writing a script is not the same as writing a novel. But if you look beyond the differences in written format [...]

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GIVEAWAY: I am (again) excited to give away a free copy of either the 2012 Guide to Literary Agents or Formatting & Submitting Your Manuscript, 3rd Ed., to a random commenter. Comment within one week; winners must live in Canada/US to receive the book by mail. Good luck to all! (UPDATE: Chad Lynch won.) One [...]

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So I originally intended this video to be about the way I once organized my whole submission plan for literary magazines. I had this fancy pants spreadsheet characterizing my every submission move. The spreadsheet was color-coded. It had formulas. There were calculations. It was brilliant. Or so I used to think. But a few minutes [...]

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I want to do something a bit different today. My new book The Boggle Hunters, a fantasy adventure novel for kids aged 8-12 has just come out this month in Australia (Scholastic Press Australia) and I want to talk about the sheer magic of creating this book and the fun I’ve had creating a new [...]

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Dear Fellow Sandwich Generationer: When you found out you’d become an official caregiver for two generations of people (one older, one younger), and hence a member of the “sandwich” generation, did the news come via a phone call? Mine did, as I sat writing in the deceptively soft, grey light of a winter morning. It [...]

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Therese butting in for a second to make the happy announcement that the ever-talented Sarah Callender will be joining WU as a half-time contributor! We’re thrilled and honored to have her with us! Last month, some girlfriends and I took the train from Seattle to Portland (home of Powell’s City of Books and Voodoo Donuts [...]

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Heads up: Today’s post is one of the most inspirational I’ve ever read here on Writer Unboxed. (Therese here, by the way.) I’m so pleased to bring you our guest blogger, author Robin LaFevers. Robin is a multi-published author and the co-founder of a blog I’ve long admired, Shrinking Violets–a site geared toward introverted writers. [...]

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Kath here. Today’s guest is WU community member Mary Incontro. Mary is a former federal prosecutor hard at work on her first novel, a work of legal fiction. During her career as a reporter on Capitol Hill, an attorney and public prosecutor, writing has been a huge part of Mary’s professional life; now she is ready [...]

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“Encumbered by idjits, we pressed on.” – John Fusco, Young Guns II We’ve been talking lately here on Writer Unboxed about coping with our devastating self-doubts as writers and, by contrast, our unreal expectations of the publishing industry. We writers often find ourselves swinging from one end of the spectrum to the other, from the [...]

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