In the latest Art-Committed Life newsletter, I seek to give back to the creative community with links to creative writing resources as well as reflections on key issues in the life of a creative. You'll learn about a new online writing community featuring workshops by accomplished authors and creative writing instructors that also includes opportunities …
Tag: Creative writing
The Latest Art-Committed Life Newsletter: Plotter v. Pantser and More
In my latest Art-Committed life newsletter, I take a fresh approach to the stereotypical two types of creative, the "plotter" and the "pantser," including if they're really as different as we believe. I also provide great news about a fiction writer featured in a past issue, and share an update of my own creative journey. …
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Three Lessons I Learned While Writing a Novel First Draft
So the retreat to the Mojave Desert paid off, and I've now officially completed the first draft of my novel-in-progress. I started outlining the story this summer, and it has evolved significantly from first doodles to 110,000-word draft. As a published author and professional writer, I know the most important step is yet to come: …
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Giving Yourself Permission to Write
Many of my Twitter peeps are deep into #NaNoWriMo right now, this masochistic movement every November where writers produce a full first draft of a novel in 30 days. I'm exhausted just writing that sentence. While I've been an on-and-off creative writer for nearly three decades now, I've never participated in NaNoWriMo. Part of it …
What is Your Writing Process? Writing in Order
Many fiction authors seem to have a preference in writing a novel; they either must write the book in order from beginning to end, or they must follow their muse where it leads them, writing ahead as needed. It appears there is consensus among novelists for a beginning-to-end approach, however. That would be consistent with …
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What is Your Writing Process? First Drafts
A non-writer may ask you, "How is your book coming?" A fellow writer may ask you, "What draft are you on?" To the first question I usually reply, "It's going well, thanks," and then quickly change the subject. To the second, my typical response is, "It depends." Many creative writers plow through their WIP in …
Using Your Subconscious as a Ghostwriter
As I've discussed my return to creative writing with others, I'm frequently asked if it's hard to get back into the groove. No, I respond, because I have a ghostwriter who does the hard work of plotting, scene construction, character development, and revision. I simply take dictation. The process I'm referring to is tapping into …
The Creative Writer Returns
I'm back! It's been a bit more than three years since I last posted to The Artist's Road. I launched the blog in 2010 to chart a path that I had set for myself to return to an art-committed life. Over the next five years I earned an MFA, won a few creative writing awards, …
A Survivor’s Guide to AWP
It's one of the largest annual gatherings of creative writers, publishers, and educators in the United States--usually well in excess of 10,000 attendees--and the largest such event for literary writers. Once again I'll be attending the AWP Conference & Bookfair, the Association of Writers and Writing Programs' annual extravaganza. This year the hordes will be …
When Your Art-Committed Life is at Low Tide
For more than four years I've blogged here about the "challenges and rewards of living an art-committed life," as the mini-bio to the right says. I launched this blog in part to keep me honest, to ensure I wouldn't once again stray from the creative path. A question I've been asking myself this winter, as …
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The Artist's Road 