Writing Advice: Five tips to inspire (and improve) your online research

What do the following two pictures have in common? Words? Pictures? Ideas? Yes, yes and yes. But they are also both photos of sources I’m using for my new work-in-progress. Yes, they are drastically different in terms of medium. The first two are reference books I’m madly absorbing so that I can recreate the zeitgeist […]

When a story takes over – a writer hangs on for the ride

Originally posted on Patricia J. Parsons:
In modern parlance, I’m what might be called a “plotter” when it comes to my writing. This is in contrast to those of you who are called “pantsers,” although I’m not sure why anyone would accept that slightly dubious moniker. Anyway, plotters plan things – characters, timelines, settings and,…

How to Write a Book Proposal

(excerpt from Permission to Write: How to Write a Book & Other Myths from the Real World of Writing & Publishing by Patricia J. Parsons The moment the publisher said “yes” she was interested in seeing more about my book with a view to possible publication was the moment I knew I’d have to learn […]

Self-plagiarism: A writer’s guide

Originally posted on Patricia J. Parsons:
Some years ago, I wrote a blog piece on self-plagiarism, a concept that seems to be largely unknown in circles of wannabe writers these days. It seemed important at that time because I was still teaching full-time at a university, and a former student contacted me to ask for…

Who’s on first: Understanding who’s who in book editing

by Patricia J. Parsons Writers write. Editors edit. It’s that simple. Right? Well, not really. Let’s take a trip through the writing-editing process from the beginning of an idea to when a book makes its way into a reader’s hands. An idea forms in a writer’s head and that writer takes a unique, individualized approach […]

How to Reduce Clutter in Your Writing

by Patricia J.Parsons In his book On Writing Well, an absolute must-read for anyone who writes, the estimable William Zinsser presents to us an entire chapter simply titled “clutter.” He begins by telling us that “…fighting clutter is like fighting weeds – the writer is always slightly behind.” This is probably truer these days than […]

Promoting your writer’s voice online: How do you sound?

by Patricia J. Parsons If you write fiction, you’ve been told over and over that publishers and readers look for “fresh voices” and it’s much the same for nonfiction. A writer’s voice is that unique fingerprint that identifies that writer’s style, or as it was put to me early in my writing career, style is […]

Collaborative writing: Is it for you?

There’s little doubt that writing is, in general, a solitary business. That’s why keeping your momentum, as we discussed last week, is so important. No boss is demanding that you complete the work or risk your job. It’s just you. However, there might be times when you ought to consider a collaboration. There may be […]

Tips to Keep Momentum in Your Writing

It doesn’t matter what kind of work you do: especially if the project is a long one, there often comes a time when you lose momentum. Momentum, of course, is that forward-motion or energy that powers us through our activities toward completion. Writers, perhaps more than many others, need this propulsion to keep the work […]

Five Ways to Make the Most of Your Writing Journal

Writers have been using journals of one kind or another for as long as there have been writers. Among them, Victor Hugo, Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Plath, Ernest Hemingway and J.K. Rowling who famously wrote out the first draft of her first Harry Potter book in a journal in a café in Scotland while on government […]