Sorry, this course is now closed for enrollment. Visit bayareabookdoctor.com for future dates. Learn how to create conflict, choose a compelling point of view, and move your story forward. Understand what makes a scene tick and what makes a character worth caring about in Fundamentals of Fiction Writing, a six-week online course that begins Oct. 15, 2011. Each week features a lecture, reading and writing assignments, live chat, and discussion forum focusing on one of the fundamental elements of fiction craft: characterization point of view structure setting dialogue plot Class structure: A weekly lecture on a specific aspect of...
On Writing
The Art of Rejection: Kathryn Stockett’s tale of never giving up
More Magazine features an essay by Kathryn Stockett, author of the wildly successful novel The Help, now a wildly successful film. It’s an old story, but worth repeating: novelist gets a zillion rejections, or 60, to be more precise, before finally landing an agent, a publisher, and a long-running spot at the top of just about every bestseller list you can imagine. Stockett’s advice for writers and anyone else who keeps hitting a brick wall? “Give in to your obsession.” Click here to get free downloads from the Guided Workbooks for Writers series. In the end, I received 60...
What writers can learn from late, great music man John Carter
In July’s obit section, WORD magazine remembers John Carter, songwriter, producer, and A&R man extraordinaire, who “was instrumental in the careers of and a passionate supporter of Bob Seger, The Motels, Sammy Hagar, Melissa Etheridge, Tori Amos, David and David, and … Tina Turner.” WORD quotes an interview for industry website Taxi, in which Carter said that “the one thing he had learned was that over 70 percent of hit records have titles containing nouns.” All kinds of songs become successful, and therefore can be held up as examples to encourage someone that what they’re doing is right, but...
and all the ships at sea
I wanted to share an interesting email I received last week from a reader: I’m a Marine stationed over at Camp Pendleton in California. While I was on deployment, I found The Year Of Fog in the small ship library…I was a part of an expeditionary unit sitting off the coast of Burma last year after their country was ravaged by a natural disaster. I mean this in the greatest sincerity when I say that reading and finishing your story was truly all I looked forward to the 2 months I spent sitting on a ship, counting the days...
The Untimely Death of Manning Marable
What if you spent 20 years writing your magnum opus, only to pass away the day before its publication? That’s what happened to Columbia professor Manning Marable, remembered here in the New York Times. “For two decades, the Columbia University professor Manning Marable focused on the task he considered his life’s work: redefining the legacy of Malcolm X. Last fall he completed “Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention,” a 594-page biography described by the few scholars who have seen it as full of new and startling information and insights.” It is tragic that Marable will never get the chance...
The international bestseller about one woman’s search for a missing child…
"Mesmerizing." ~Library Journal, starred review.
Stop dreaming, start writing!
