Women on Writing - WOW and WOW!
Women On Writing is an online magazine and community for women writers. Among major topics are novel writing, indie publishing, author platform, blogging, screenwriting, and more. Lots of contests and general jocularity sans frittering on the part of Earth's most powerful humans.
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Meriam-Webster recently added over 300 new words to the dictionary. Reviewing the list, I found that I was already aware of most of them—I guess that’s the point. As Meriam-Webster explains on their site, “The dictionary chronicles how the language grows and changes, which means new words and definitions must continually be added. When many people use a word in the same way, over a long enough period of time, that word becomes eligible for inclusion.” Here are some of the newly added words. I knew some of them from being on social media (“virtue signaling”), watching the television show Parks and Recreation (“Galentine’s Day”), and having Gen Z kids (“yeet” and “sus”)—t…
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For years there were so many things that held me back as I pursued a writing career. One particularly was waiting for the perfect time to write. I told myself far too often that I would write when my world, my family, my home life, even the weather at times, was perfect. I told myself I would write when I was in a better mood and not full of melancholy, or I would write when every room in my home was impeccably clean, or the laundry was done, or a meal cooked, or when a loved one who was ill felt better, or when whatever storm I might be going through passed. During that season of my life, I felt that a perfect life was the only means to bring about a perfect writing life…
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Tomorrow is the day. The day. The day that marks the start of NaNoWriMo. If you don't already know, NaNoWriMo is a worldwide challenge to write a novel (at least 50,000 words in length) between November 1-30. It's a short month. (One less day makes a big difference.) There are lots of reasons why you should accept the challenge (whatever word count you get down is more than you would if you didn't do NaNoWriMo, there is built-in support via encouraging videos/writing "friends" and it's a good thing to stretch yourself as a writer). However, there are also some obstacles (lots) and ways to avoid those obstacles. Obstacle # 1 The frenzied pace. It's like stepping on a …
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Last week, after hours and HOURS of researching everything book cover-related, I sunk into my comfy chair, ostensibly watching a baking show. I told myself that I needed to let my research simmer a while before making a choice. But really, I was stalling. I seemed to be at a point of paralysis that I thought centered on costs involved. Just FYI, there are an awful lot of book cover designers out there, whether they’re freelancers or hired on for a company. And the fee for book designing encompasses an extensive range, from the thousands to dirt cheap (less than fifty dollars). So I had narrowed down my choices (also in quite a range) but I just couldn’t decide. And th…
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I couldn't resist when I saw the request from Writer's Digest to nominate your favorite websites for writers. The first website I thought of? WOW! Women on Writing, of course! I joined the WOW team in 2017 and I've loved all the parts I've played. From blog tours to blog posts, this website keeps me inspired. And with as stressful as this year has been for me, I appreciate anything that has inspired me. But maybe you love WOW for a different reason! Maybe it's the classes, the newsletters, the writing contests, the giveaways, or the chance to read some amazing books. Whatever it is, we hope you nominate us as one of the Writer's Digest Best Websites for Writers. Right now…
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I struggle. I changed that sentence oh so many times - I struggle with ____________ (time management, not always understanding, being patient, parenting, finding time to write, and the list goes on). Ultimately though - I'm sure you can relate with the simple sentence: After all, each of us struggles with something, right? I left WOW! Blog Tours for a while because I was having a difficult time managing my mom role while managing tours. I thought leaving the tours would be the answer. It wasn't. I'm back. I was missing the lovely bloggers and authors I had worked with. This got me thinking about how we often don't know what the future brings and how things will turn …
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Recently, my middle schoolers finished drafting and revising their pioneer pieces. Each of them chose a pioneer--someone who had broken barriers--and had researched, took notes, composed, crafted, edited and revised. They studied how the person had changed the world. They also examined the person's obstacles. Several of my students discovered their person had been told they shouldn't have the dream they dreamed. For example, Dr. Mae Jemison was the first African American woman to go into space. However, years ago she was also a kindergartener who said she wanted to be a doctor when she grew up. Her kindergarten teacher said, "Mae, I'm sure you mean you want to be a nu…
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I love October but then I love autumn and chocolate and books. Since 2003, October has been National Book Month. It is sponsored by the National Book Foundation which exists to celebrate the best literature in the US, attract new readers, and assure that books have a place in American culture. There are so many things that we can do to celebrate. Visit Your Library I adore my library. I’m not exaggerating. If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook or read my blog, you are going to see that I post at least once a week about the library. I go there every week and I have a shelf in my office for library books. But I’m always shocked by the number of people who don’t visi…
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We're back again with another blog tour! Today I'm excited to introduce you to Odyssey of Love: A Memoir of Seeking and Finding by author Linda Jämsén. Join us as we share more about this profound memoir, interview the author, and give away a copy of the book to one lucky reader. First, a little bit about the book Odyssey of Love: When Linda doesn’t receive the marriage proposal she had long been expecting from her boyfriend on her 41st birthday, she reluctantly visits a psychic, Angelica, who predicts that Linda will soon leave him for a romantic and music-filled Odyssey in Europe. There, a “Russian icon” will lead to her future husband, a “tall man with glasses.” Ske…
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Yesterday I had one of those days, and it’s spilling over into today. I’ve let that negative voice in my head discourage me. I’m not sure what triggered it. It could be several days in a row of gloomy, cold, drizzly weather (I’ve been prone to Seasonal Affective Disorder in the past) or it could be the result of completing a massive revision on my young adult novel last week. I took a few weeks off writing and producing for my podcast, "Missing in the Carolinas" so I could focus on the book edits and when I sat down yesterday to work on the new episode . . . I couldn’t do it. I was tired, fatigued, anxious about being behind on holiday prep and shopping and a slew of othe…
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I've spent so much of the last year (more if I'm being honest) feeling overwhelmed. I don't know if it's the stress of the pandemic, the volatility of farming, trying to juggle teenagers and toddlers, or being an only child with an aging mother. I really can't just pick one thing, but I keep straying away from things that bring me joy - and now my health is paying the price for it. I want to get back to writing. I want to read more books. I want to do more blog tours. I want to ride my horses more often. The list goes on - I just want to get back to my happy self. When I think of all the things I haven't done and all the things I should be doing or want to do, I feel abs…
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Sometimes, we can all feel a little stuck. Being stuck can look like writer's block. It can look like a lot of unfinished projects. It can also look like never putting our butts in the chair. What do we do when we’re stuck? I’m not going to define exactly what I mean by stuck. We all have different versions of what this means. But if you're reading this right now and nodding along with me, then think of the way that you are currently stuck. And let’s try to do something about that. Lately I’ve been feeling very stuck in a few areas of my life. I decided life is too short to live this way. It’s too short to not make progress on a book. It’s too short to do a job that I d…
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I was browsing through one of my books on writing (specifically, The Writer’s Workout: 366 Tips, Tasks & Techniques from Your Writing Career Coach by Christina Katz) and a tip regarding writing about the body caught my eye. The author spoke of how we have so many memories stored inside our bodies. This led me to thinking that if I brainstormed creative nonfiction essay ideas or journal entries about my own body, what would I write about? I’ve already written about the bump in the middle of my nose, and how I received it after falling off a pogo ball my stepfather bought me in the 1980s. I can still remember the taste of blood as it poured from my nose and onto the co…
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Whenever Mother's Day draws near, I must admit I go into overdrive reminiscing about my late mother and thinking of ways to pay homage to her and all that she ever taught me, through my writing. I have my fill of so many memories that I try to slip into those stories. Whether it's a fiction story about a family matriarch, a nostalgic essay about my mother's life, or a children's picture book story where she is the adoring Grandma doling out love, wisdom and peppermints, she is there, her voice, her advice, her mannerisms, the way she dressed, the wigs she loved wearing, the songs she hummed, the television shows she watched, the delicious meals she prepared, the prayers s…
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Writers are a quirky bunch, aren’t they? We all have our own way of making the magic, whether writing a novel, or a short story, or even an article. Some of us swear by outlines, some of us use a sticky note or index card system, and some of us sort it all with some form of a book map. I’ve used each of the above methods when writing novels, but sometimes, I mash them up and use ALL the sparkly stuff. Like this time around, when I pulled out all my techniques to use at different stages of the work. Here’s a walk-through of my latest novel and maybe you’ll find something that will help you at whatever stage you’re in: You may have heard about J. K. Rowling and her famous…
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After reading Bethany Jarmful’s "Friday Speak Out" post about making sure you write even when you’re busy, I thought of my early days of freelancing. I would often have my four-year-old daughter putting together a set of railroad tracks for my toddler son in the playroom so I could interview someone for a weekly newspaper column I wrote. I never could seem to coordinate phone calls with nap times, especially when my precocious daughter decided she was done with napping at the age of two. My kids are teenagers now and for a brief window of time after the oldest got her driver’s license and began driving her brother to and from school and to sports practices, I blissfully w…
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Perspective - What's Yours? How silly is this cow? She's trying to figure out what I'm drinking - cows are naturally curious animals and I just love spending time with them. When I was looking for a picture for this article, I thought you'd all enjoy this particular perspective seeking, milk producing, bovine! I learned something new lately and have been applying it in all sorts of areas of my life, but it can definitely help us as writers. Particularly if someone says something negative about our work. Keep that in mind while you're reading and get ready for my infamous questions at the end of our time together! By definition, perspective is our attitude about thin…
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Ask me today how I feel about a certain story of mine and I'll answer differently if you ask me next month. I've been working on revising a short story of mine and it's been a challenge. Yesterday was the first time I looked at it in a month, and I thought it needed quite a lot of shaping up. The plotline was solid but there were other factors that made me feel a bit "blech" about it. It made me think of how perspective on writing can be incredibly fickle. You see, I also rant into a flash fiction piece of mine that I had long since written off as being unworthy of publication. When I read it over the weekend, I thought to myself, "Wow, this really isn't that bad." The sa…
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If you’re looking for a writing prompt to spark some new output, here’s an exercise to try. Inspired by doing newspaper blackout poetry, which I wrote about here, it involves isolating words and phrases from a newspaper or magazine article. You can then use them to trigger some writing. Recently, I was doing this with the sports section of our paper (there seem to be good phrases there). I circled “Not really, Kyle” because that’s my husband’s name, so it made me chuckle. The article was referring to Kyle Shanahan, the head coach of the San Francisco 49ers, in case you were wondering. Here are some of the sentence fragments I circled from a few issues. Any of these co…
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My grandmother. Recently I got an e-mail from my editor. “Would you be willing to take this on? One thing – all of the writers working on this project have to use pen names.” There are a variety of reasons that writers use pen names. A friend of mine who writes romance told me about the male members of Romance Writers of America who often use pen names. Another friend uses a pen name for her work for hire and her own name on her royalty paying jobs. Yet another writing friend, an engineer, writes science fiction and cozy mysteries under her own name and erotica under a pen name. I’ve heard from some writers that they use one name for their work for young readers an…
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For the past six weeks, I’ve been working as a mentor in a program that helps prepare writers for the educational market. The goal is that by the time the program is over they will have all that they need to apply to any educational market, and there are many. One group of educational markets specializes in testing. The authors who write for these markets prepare passages. Some of them also write the actual test questions. Many write for state assessment tests. Another group writes books for the school and library market. Most of these jobs are work-for-hire with a vast range of topics. To write for this market you have to write fast and you have to be flexible. T…
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Make the idea your own. November is Picture Book Month. No, not Picture Book Idea Month. That’s now known as Storystorm and takes place in January. Picture Book Month is all about celebrating the picture book. You can do this in any number of ways. It isn’t Storystorm, but you can still make a point of generating at least one new picture book idea every day. You can read a picture book every day. Your local library is sure to be full of picture books. You can doodle, illustrating your way through a manuscript idea every day. Buy picture books to give as Christmas gifts. Make earring charms featuring the covers of your favorite picture books. What… Ever. Do wh…
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No matter how old people are or their feelings about reading, they have fond memories of picture books. These memories can range from reading with parents or grandparents at night books like, The Monster at the End of This Book or The True Story of the Three Little Pigs or just about any Golden Book. Memories, of row after row of hardback picture books with white tags on the spine in a school library or even a public one, are also front and center in readers' minds. Maybe some of these picture books were the first ones that you learned to read as a child, and now you are sharing your favorites with your kids--Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? or Don't Let the Pigeo…
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There are a lot of posts and articles, conference talks and YouTube videos and classes, that tell you the dos and don'ts of picture book writing. (Click the link for one by our very own Sue Bradford Edwards!) There are a lot of rules and best practices for picture book writers, and so when I said a couple of weeks ago that I was writing about the dos and don'ts of picture book writing--you probably rolled your eyes. But bear with me. I want to present a different kind of dos and don'ts list--one that reaches into your writer's soul and grabs on. One that allows you to write the best book you can for our youngest readers. The only "rule" I'll mention before I go on to t…
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Not to toot my own horn, but here it is, the next to last day of November, and I’m put-a-fork-in-my-manuscript-done with Nano. Um…I guess that is tooting my own horn. But I’m going to share how I accomplished my specific goal for this annual writing challenge and if you give my method a try, you’ll be tooting your own horn, too. THE GOAL Unlike the Nano standard 50,000 words by the end of the month, I tweak my goal to fit my specific need. This year, I had nearly 28,000 polished words of a cozy mystery. I wanted to add 10,000 words in November and develop a doable habit of producing the same per month (approximately 500 words a day). Keep in mind I’m editing and writing …
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