Now that we’ve entered month seven of the pandemic, we have to balance self-care with medical compliance. Be kind to yourself and nurture your creativity with some informal writerly learnings.
Black and Indigenous lives matter. All lives cannot matter until Black and Indigenous lives matter.
Wear your masks. Maintain physical distance. Get your flu shot as soon as you can. Sacrifice now (and really, it’s not that much of a sacrifice) will mean that fewer people have to contract covid-19 and fewer people have to die from it. Compliance is not a violation of your rights. It is respect for your fellow human beings.
Princess Weekes critiques Antebellum and movies about slavery in general. Melina Pendulum
Abigail K. Perry does another Story Grid scene analysis: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows. Erin Tyler shares five tips for writing about family dynamics. DIY MFA
Joanna Penn interviews K.M. Weiland about outlining your novel and filling the well. The Creative Penn
Over on Helping Writers Become Authors, K.M. points out the link between your story’s first and third plot points.
Jenna Moreci shares her top ten tips for killing off characters.
Janice Hardy shows you what makes a good beginning (if you’re struggling with yours). Then, she explains what makes a good middle (beware of getting stuck in the mud). Fiction University
Leslie Vedder shares three tips for cutting your word count (without giving your whole story the axe). Jane Friedman
If you’re not sure about NaNoWriMo, Shaelin looks at the pros and cons. Reedsy
Therese Walsh: the edge of now, and its gift for writers. Then, Donald Maass discusses timeless endings. Kathryn Craft lists five ways paragraphing supports story. Writer Unboxed
The girly girl trope, explained. The Take
Chris Winkle lists five signs your story is classist. Then, Oren Ashkenazi analyzes the Star Trek series finales, from worst to best. Mythcreants
Jill Bearup explains why a corset stopping a knife strike (ala Enola Holmes) is plausible.
Words with lost meanings (AKA that word you keep using. I don’t think is means what you think it means). Merriam-Webster
Petra Mayer: amidst global troubles, the MacArthur “Genius” Grant winners provoke and inspire, including N.K. Jemisin, Jacqueline Woodson, and Christina Rivera Garza. NPR
Emma Reynolds reports that the 2020 Nobel Prize for literature awarded to Louise Glück. CNN
Thank you for stopping by. I hope you took away something to support your current work in progress.
Until Thursday, be well and stay safe, my writerly friends.
