Writer Unboxed

I know Kathleen and Therese meant well when they asked me to offer my best writing advice, but I gotta tell you, the idea that I could presume to do so after being here less than three months? With the pedigree of you folks? Oy. The very concept made me break out in hives. Fortunately, [...]

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Please welcome guest contributor Jeanne Kisacky to WU. Scholar and architectural historian, Jeanne was a finalist in our search for our unpubbed contributor, and we thought her essay was fantastic. Jeanne tells us ”I’m a recovering architect (anyone interested in joining the charter chapter of Architects Anonymous, please contact me); and an escaped editor. For [...]

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Two weekends ago, I participated in the delightful Tucson Festival of Books. While on a panel with Karen Joy Fowler, Margaret Erhart and Daniel Stolar, we fell into a discussion of the importance of setting and sense of place. We all expressed surprise and frustration at the lack of setting details that sometimes show up [...]

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I promised you a post on building Facebook ads, and this is it. I know, I know, you can barely contain your excitement! So why Facebook ads? Facebook ads are something the marketing team at Shaye Areheart Books recommended I try, since I wanted to contribute to my book’s campaign. They were easy to set [...]

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Sherri — a regular reader at my weblog — asked me recently what books I’d recommend to somebody who has just started writing fiction. It’s a reasonable question, as there are about a bazillion how-to-write-a best-selling-novel-and-get-published books out there. There are several distinct subcategories of the writing-related how-to books — craft, theory, inspiration, marketing/sales, reference, [...]

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When I started writing historical fiction seriously (approximately 1995) I was still on the faculty at the University of Michigan. This meant that I had a fantastic library at my disposal. Faculty could (and probably still can) send an email or call and say, here’s a list of books and articles I need. Later that [...]

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February is Plot Month at WU. Back in 2006, I road-tested THE WRITER’S JOURNEY by Christopher Vogler to see if it was an efficient (notice I didn’t say easy) method of plotting a book. Two manuscripts later, I’m still using Vogler as the foundation for my stories. It’s been the best method for me to [...]

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Kath here. Today’s post is the first from WU’s newest contributor, Rosina Lippi. Enjoy! For the historical novelist – for anyone interested in history – the internet has brought about a revolution. We are floating in a sea of information that deepens and spreads minute by minute. It’s incredibly empowering, but it also has its dangers. [...]

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Kath here. As part of my ongoing effort to find the perfect way to organize a mess when it comes to notes and research, I asked blogger Lisa Janice Cohen if she would share her organizing tool, TiddlyWikiWrite, and I was thrilled when she agreed. Lisa (left) created TiddlyWikiWrite out of an existing wiki platform (ingenious) into [...]

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I’m currently in NYC! Today I meet my agent, Elisabeth Weed, and yesterday I met my new editor, Sarah Knight. I’ll tell you more about these meetings when I get back home. For now, I wanted to share an idea I had with you, something that occurred to me while straightening my desk the other [...]

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Some of you may already know about this approach, but this can be a valuable tip for those who don’t, so I’ll risk boring the savvy ones with this info. First, keep your entire book manuscript in one electronic file—it’s a huge time-saver. I know writers who use a separate file on their computer for [...]

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First off, I want to thank you all for your congrats. This has been a wild few weeks, for sure. And, since Therese Fowler removed her supergirl mask in comments, I’d like to say a public thanks to her, too–my willing pre-publication blurber. Thanks, Therese! You’re the best of the best! Okay, on to today’s [...]

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