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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I'm excited to announce our next blog tour with author Linda Stewart Henley and her book Waterbury Winter. Make sure you stick around to read more about the author, her book, and enter to win a copy for yourself. This book is perfect for people looking for a charming, hopeful summer read filled with mystery, romance, and heart. First, here's a bit about the book: Barnaby Brown has had enough of freezing winters, insurmountable debt, a dead-end job, and his solitary life as a young widower with no one but his beloved parrot Popsicle. He yearns to move to California and reawaken his long-lost early life as an artist. But new troubles come in threes. His ancient car crashes …
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When Sioux contacted me a few years ago for developmental editing before I had started Editor-911 Books, like so many Americans, I also hadn't heard of the Tulsa Race Massacre. She told me her big picture idea and bought a novel draft package. With my developmental editor hat on, I read her manuscript (Sioux is a wonderful writer) and knew that she had spent most of the pages skirting around the actual massacre because she was writing a middle-grade novel, and she was thinking of her audience. I think she wondered if she could write about the horrific details of that event for that age group. But my advice was: Kids, teachers, parents, and librarians will want to read abo…
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"Where there is a woman there is magic."- Ntozake Shange ( American Playwright and Poet) Women are awesome, so are women writers. In honor of Women's History Month and each day we women writers toil at our craft, here are some reasons from A-Z why we are so awesome. A is for authenticity. As writers we stay true to ourselves and our convictions when we put pen to paper. We allow ourselves and our characters to be vulnerable and imperfect, unafraid to reveal what lies beneath our exterior. B is for Beauty. We writers find beauty in the most unexpected and sometimes darkest places to intersperse throughout our stories. We know when we can point to the beauty in something;…
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Photo by Alexander Mills on Pexels.com A few weeks ago, I got an intriguing message from LinkedIn. A recruiter was looking to fill an editor role for a large personal finance company in my area. Although I have my hands full with my day job at a regional magazine, I took a moment and scanned the responsibilities. It looked pretty straightforward and aligned with my skill set, although a bit more “corporate” than I’m used to. But I’ll admit the contract pay ($46 per hour) attracted me. I hopped on a quick call with the recruiter that morning to talk specifics. Then I discovered a few things that made me pause. The company was looking for 40 hours a week, starting almost …
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We're almost to the mid-way point on 2022 (can you believe it?) and I figured it's time to do a reflection post. This time of year is great for resetting goals and reflecting on how things have gone so far. I feel like I've taken major strides in writing so far. I've worked more with editors this year than I have in previous years and have gotten more income from my writing than in other years too. While I haven't had my fiction published, submitting continues to be part of my journey and I'm hoping to end the year with an acceptance. So with all of this in mind, here are a few things I've learned that maybe can help you: Your story isn't for everyone.I recently started s…
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On our Facebook page, I recently asked how many unfinished manuscripts our community had on their computers. We received many different responses from Naomi Blackburn writing, "I have 4 in various stages from concept to first edits. All will be finished," to Sophie Giroir putting the laughing while crying emoji and writing "easier to count the folders." It's much easier for me to ask that question than to answer it myself. My word of the year for 2021 is FINISH, and so far, it hasn't been going so well...but that's all about to change--I'll save that for a different post. What I wanted to talk about today was reasons why unfinished manuscripts exist in a writer's …
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Ah yes - other people...What a great way to ruin a perfectly wonderful day - with people! I didn't say ALL people, so don't get all upset right away. I'm not talking about YOU - I'm talking about THOSE people who have nothing nice to say. The people who share their negative thoughts and opinions with anyone who will listen. The people who make themselves feel better by putting others down. You've met them, right? There's a fabulous movement on social media (at least in my feed - with all my wonderful uplifting and supportive mommy friends) to #weartheswimsuit . IF you don't believe me, just type in that hashtag on any social media outlet and you'll find pictures of all s…
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The low road or the high road? Which leads to writing?emondlafoto on Pixaby Just over a month ago, a fellow writer tweeted a question. “Writers: Do you have a degree in writing? Does it help?” My first smart aleck thought was, “I don’t know. Is there a hole in your wall that you need to cover?” Sorry. It’s an old family joke that gets trotted out whenever someone is showing off a diploma of some kind. “You could cover a fair-sized hole in the wall with that!” Back to the original tweet. I’ve never really felt the need to go for an MFA but there was a group of people who told her that a writing degree was essential. These people, not surprisingly, generally had MF…
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The past few months have led me down the road of revisions again. It's not too uncommon for me to continue revising, even after I've begun to submit. Somehow, it eases the sting of rejection to know I'm in an ongoing state of improvement. In fact, I've recently re-revised two short stories of mine and they have been sent out to the world with renewed hope of acceptance. At the moment, I'm looking at another short story of mine this hot afternoon in June and recognize that vague feeling that it's "missing something." I read it freshly, only to realize that around page three, I was beginning to skim it. It's one of the few short stories I've written that feels purely fict…
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"Why shouldn't truth be stranger than fiction? Fiction, after all, has to make sense." - Mark Twain Every now and then when I reflect on my life, I shake my head and think that it has often been stranger than fiction. I like to joke with my close friends that it indeed has been like a Lifetime movie. Most people who don't know my many stories and the deep lows in my life, those who see the smile I try to keep mapped on my face, think I live or have lived a charmed life. Although I have had so much joy, abundant blessings, and too many good times to count, there have also been tumultuous times too, times when I fell to…
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Photo by elifskies from Pexels It’s been kind of a rough week over here. I’ve made a few errors in a magazine I edit recently, and that realization has made me feel terrible. One was a pretty big whopper—I accidentally ran a wine column in our new issue that we ran in March 2020. I’m not sure what I’m more upset about—the fact that I mistakenly went into the wrong e-mail folder to retrieve the file or that it didn’t even resonate with me that I read or edited it before. The columnist was not happy when he figured it out, resulting in a terse e-mail to me that made my heart sink. A few hours later, another writer reached out to ask me why I had asked him to interview someo…
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Gather round, friends, it’s storytime with Cathy. It was midday Tuesday, and I sat down at my desk, opened my laptop to a word document, and began to write this very blog post. I had an idea, and once I got started, the words flowed. To be exact, 239 words were on the page when out of the blue, my curser stopped. At first, I thought it was the mouse, and so I tried to direct the curser manually. But that did not fix the problem and as I realized my laptop had frozen, my cell phone rang. ME: Hold on a sec, I need to figure out what to do about this document on this &^&^* frozen laptop. DAUGHTER: Uh-Oh. (And then Daughter went into a long story about her work lap…
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By Bobbie Christmas Q: Do single quotation marks indicate irony? Do they indicate thoughts? When should I use single quotation marks? A: Use great caution when using single quotation marks. Many writers use them incorrectly, perhaps because their use in American English differs from the British. In American English single quotation marks should be used only inside double quotation marks, with the exception of headlines. Following is information on single and double quotation marks from my book doctor’s desk reference book titled Purge Your Prose of Problems: Quoted words, phrases, and sentences run into the text are enclosed in double quotation marks. Single quotation ma…
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orangeacid (photo on Flickr.com)What happens when you read the synopsis of a novel, and it's eerily similar to what you've beeen working on for years? This recently happened between two of my students in the WOW! class I'm teaching about writing for middle grade and young adult readers. I gave them an assignment to write a tagline describing their novels and a paragraph introducing their protagonists. After they shared with one another, one student wrote me in a panic. "XXXXXX's novel (that is already published) is almost exactly like mine. My fiance says that this happens all the time. There are no unique stories. But I'm wondering if all this work I've been doing for ye…
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If you've been keeping track of my blog posts, you'll remember that I've been battling with an incredibly stuck and stubborn short story of mine. In case you forgot, here's one post I wrote about being in pursuit of conflict and another about finding treasure in your first draft. Both were inspired by a story of mine that wasn't moving forward. I didn't want to end the month of February without reaching a resolution in this story. I had been reading endless pieces of advice on how to jumpstart your story, improve your characters, and ratchet up your plotline. Last week, I thought my only option was really to just let the story go and come back to it a few months later. Y…
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Whose Truth is It? "I have to tell the truth" Grab your coffee or tea before you get too much further - this may be a longer than usual chat. Ready? Here goes - I need your help with something spinning in my brain: Sometimes the truth is easier to define than others. I find myself pondering what is true when I sit down to critique an essay or short story, or write a book review. Of course, I have to tell the truth - but wait...what's the truth and whose truth is it? This is an internal conversation I have every time. It's so much easier when you're talking about baking or driving. The truth is, the recipe calls for 2T of sweet cream. The truth is, the speed limit …
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by Leah Claire Kaminski Open any writer’s notebook and you’ll find a unique ecosystem, populated with lists (of books, birds), quotations, diary entries, overheard dialogue, memories sparked, striking images, sketches, and memorabilia. Some notebooks might even contain actual writing! Ask any writer how they use their notebook, and you’ll get a different answer. Amit Chauduri writes back to front—notes at the back, with the first pages free in case he starts a novel. Carolyn Forché periodically transfers the sparkiest passages from past notebooks into a new one, which becomes dense with poetic possibility. While they fill them assiduously, many writers don’t use all o…
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Renee's post (hot off yesterday's press) about blending genres got me thinking. I mean, I'm in the middle of reading a YA novel that blends genres. It has threads of journalism, along with nubby nubbins of true crime drama. Thinking about blending genres got me thinking about why I read... and why all writers need to read. It fills the well Of course, if you read something crappy, it might inspire you to make your lines really sing. I recommend you read poetic prose. Novels with plots so engaging, your butt has a permanent crease line because you've been stuck on the edge of your seat for 378 pages... and you're gonna mourn when you finish it because it's. Just. That.…
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By Madeline Dyer Almost every writer at one point in their career has been asked by an editor to show rather than tell. Telling the story rather than showing it is a mistake that nearly all writers make early on in their career, and manuscripts and submissions will be returned with requests for more showing. But what exactly is showing, why is it important, and how do you achieve it? What is showing vs telling? In short, showing encourages the reader to experience something with the character, rather than simply being told that something has happened. Showing is about conveying information through imagery and emotion, whereas telling uses exposition. Showing some…
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Writing. Sometimes it has to take a backseat to life. Sometimes the things that are competing with our writing are what I call everyday pulls: children (two-legged as well as four-legged ones), spouses, and daytime jobs (if we do something other than writing full-time). Usually we can find ways to carve out pieces of our day, surrounded by spousing and housekeeping and cooking and child-raising and dog walking. It makes us occasionally frantic and often exhausted, but it can be done and is done all the time. Other times, what throws writing into the backseat (or the trunk) is more serious. Most of the time Sometimes Occasionally I battle with depression. It's gene…
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Congratulations to Cassandra Crossing and A Future, Bright and Free and all the winners of our 2021 Quarter 1 Creative Non-Fiction Essay Contest! Cassandra’s Bio: Cassandra immigrated to the US in hopes of a better life, yet she found heartaches and pain. She changed her name to fit in, yet even after many years, she’s viewed as a foreigner. But as in the movie, “The Cassandra Crossing,” they survived a catastrophe, she’s a survivor. She finds joy in nature and in the little things life offers. She writes from personal experience about love, despair, loss, and hope. Her work includes short stories, creative non-fiction essays, flash fiction, plays, and poetry. She’s als…
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Congratulations to Evelyn (Evie) Preston and Death by Compost Bin and all the winners of our 2021 Quarter 2 Creative Non-Fiction Essay Contest! Evie's Bio: I always wrote...in high school, college, the PTA. Spanning several careers, my writing life professionally launched in 1973 when Redbook magazine featured my Young Mother’s Story, “Mom Are We Jewish or Christmas?” in their holiday issue. Published! Invited to speak! I wrote on. The ‘80s brought some local fame writing a humor column in the Palo Alto (CA) Weekly and wound through the foibles and follies of marriage, kids, teaching and dabbling in the food business. Echoing Nora Ephron’s mom that “Everything is …
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Congratulations to Helen K. Hedrick and Le Pen de Amazon and all the winners of our 2021 Quarter 2 Creative Non-Fiction Essay Contest! Helen's Bio: Helen has her master’s degree in social work. She completed her career as a school social worker and raised her two children to young adult age in Boulder, Colorado. She now lives in a highrise in downtown Denver with her husband who is required to read everything she writes. Her formal writing training is from Gotham Writers’ Workshop in New York City and Lighthouse Writers’ Workshop in Denver. Recent classes at Lighthouse have moved her towards writing in something like a “hybrid/narrative nonfiction” genre and she is d…
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This past weekend my family surprised me with flowers and a cake. There wasn't any iced inscription on it that said, "Happy Birthday," or some other celebratory salutation most would expect on a cake. Instead, as my grandchildren held it in front of me with a lone candle, was the word, "Writer,"... plain and simple in blue icing. My heart swelled. Joyous tears filled my eyes. So often we writers feel others, even those closest to us, aren't aware how long and hard we toil at our craft. Sometimes we assume they don't know the behind the scenes work ethics we have, the sweat and tears we pour into our work, the disappointments we have faced, and the tenacity it takes to wr…
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For the past year and then some, I’ve been writing an essay while not writing. Right now, while I write this, I relax into my knitting. Because I’m writing. This is what I do up here in the mountains while I wait for the words to fully come to me. Words forever brewing in my mind as I do anything and everything but write and as I mentally jot down the ones I want to explore the next time I carve out some space to put pen to page. I’m writing in my head, basically. Always. My thoughts as a continuous essay-in-progress. Thoughts as an un-ending symphony of potential essays. Because writing is all about rhythm. Whether you’re writing nonfiction, fiction, poetry, whatever—eve…
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