Not that I recommend this, but...
How I committed to writing, plus TONS of writing resources!
It’s been a year!
It’s been a year since I started writing on Substack! Thanks to all of you for subscribing. It really means a lot to me.
This past year I’ve shared twelve short stories with my paid subscribers. A few highlights include:
“Clicker,” a story that won the Playboy fiction contest (currently available to free subscribers for a limited time!)
I’m now coming to the end of short stories I want to share. In fact, this month will probably be the last time I’ll share a short story, and it’s actually a creative nonfiction essay. But don’t worry, paid subscribers, I have good things in store for you! Things you’ll probably like better than my short stories anyway.
Not that I recommend this, but…
A little over a decade ago I made a big commitment to my writing career. I quit my full-time job teaching high school math and moved to Cape Cod to live in a friend’s guest room and be her “writer in residence” for a year.
(BTW, are you allowed to call it your career if you make no money doing it? Personally, I believe you can.)
To make money during that year, I worked a variety of part-time jobs: bar trivia hostess, math curriculum creator, liquor store employee, ESL tutor for a Ukrainian business man. I figured these part-time jobs would provide me the time and energy to focus on my writing.
But I found that, despite my master’s degree in Creative Writing, I had no idea what I was doing when it came to writing a novel. I wondered if I could make writing my career after all, or if I’d soon have to slink back to classroom teaching with my tail between my legs.
During this time, I wrote a creative nonfiction essay about ESL tutoring and physics and the meaning of life. And about my struggles with writing. It’s called “Drawing with Crayons,” and, a decade later, I still quite like it. It’s available now for my paid subscribers.
I never went back to full-time teaching. I continued cobbling together side hustles that allowed me to focus on writing. I’m not necessarily recommending people do this because it makes health insurance and taxes challenging, and to be honest I’m not sure I could still be doing this if I hadn't gotten married and jumped on my husband’s insurance. I feel very lucky to have his unwavering support and very lucky I’m able to spend as much time writing as I am. I know most people do not have this luxury.
Choosing writing as your profession is not easy: on the wallet, on the ego. Don’t go into it thinking it’s your path to fame and fortune. But if, like me, it’s the only thing you’ve ever really wanted to do as a career, my real recommendation is this: if at all possible, do whatever it is you need to do to make time for it.
This could not have come at a better time
I finished the first draft of a novel recently and am now in the process of revising it. For me, that means deconstructing the entire thing and trashing about 90% of what I wrote then building the novel again from the ground up. It’s a bit demoralizing, and I wish this wasn’t my process, but it seems to be the only way I write novels. It never gets any easier, and it’s a constant roller coaster ride between the highs (“this is the best thing I’ve ever written!”) and the lows (“this completely sucks and I have no idea what I’m doing.”) I’m coming back up from a low right now, and my confidence is still shaky.
Good thing there’s an upcoming online summit all about the writing process!
It's called Perfect Your Process and it runs from March 24th to 27th. This conference tackles:
how to draft with more confidence
how to deal with writer's block, perfectionism, and a wandering mind
how to plan a great scene and an effective revision plan
how to research your setting
how to improve your writing style
There are free and paid tickets available (it's free if you watch live), and right now the early bird pricing is still available for the paid passes.
Perfect Your Process is run by the incredible Daniel David Wallace, and his programs are never anything but the highest of quality.
BTW, the link above is an affiliate link -- if you decide to buy the paid pass, I get a commission. That doesn't change the price for you; it's just my way of partnering with this event and helping to spread the word.
Writing News & Resources
For All Writers:
This Thursday (March 23) The Manuscript Academy is offering a free online event: Your Path to Publication, a talk about the many paths to publishing—big five, still-big, university, small, self, hybrid, and more—and the rewards and frustrations of each.
Did you all see that Leigh Bardugo signed an eight-figure (aka multi-million-dollar) book deal. This is not normal, FYI. But it is fascinating.
I enjoyed this profile in The Atlantic about the incredible Judy Blume and continue to be excited that the movie version of Are You There God, It’s Me, Margaret comes out April 28.
Check out this free webinar on April 19 from Mary Kole of The Good Story Company: Writing Irresisitible First Pages. Open to novel and memoir writers of all genres and includes live critiques of attendee’s pages.
Also from The Good Story Company: free online novel and outline workshop this Thursday (March 23) at 8pm CT.
Looking for comp titles for your completed manuscript or work in progress? Or maybe just some book recommendations? #CompPit is a new Twitter event for writers and readers to help each other find comp titles. You are NOT pitching to agents/editors, but you ARE getting comp title suggestions, making connections, and having a good time. Happening March 25.
This article from The Washington Post made me laugh: Reader Pet Peeves: What Readers Hate Most in Books — from Dreams to Italics. Writers, we have been warned.
Check out these March magazine and writing contest opportunities!
Did you know: Writers Digest University has tons of live online workshops and online courses for beginning, intermediate, and published writers of all ages and genres.
Apply for the 2023 Kurt Brown WC&C Scholarships. Three winners will receive $500 to help them attend the WC&C event of their choice. Winners plus six finalists will also receive a free one-year AWP membership. Applications are open through March 31,2023.
The NYC Midnight Screenwriting Challenge kicks off March 24. Register by March 23.
Camp NaNoWriMo, a free month-long writing challenge and encouraging writing community starts April 1st. Go to the website for more details.
Self-published? Enter the Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Award competition. Deadline: April 3, 2023.
Enter the 22nd Annual Wergle Flomp Humor Poetry Contest. Free to submit published or unpublished poems, with up to $3,500 in prizes. Deadline April 1.
Writer Mother Monster (a great podcast series) is offering an online workshop: Prioritizing Your Craft for Writer Moms on Sunday, May 14
I updated my list of writing and publishing resources — my very favorite books, websites, and podcasts and writing, publishing, and creative life.
Hoping to create a regular writing habit or maybe start a novel? Learn about my do-it-on-your-own-time courses for paid subscribers: Cultivating a Regular Writing Routine and Getting Started on Your Novel.
For KidLit Writers:
Writing a MG, YA, or chapter book? With the 2023 Novel-in-Development Award from Write Mentor you can receive feedback on your opening pages with the chance to win a year’s worth of mentoring from a published author. Open to both unfinished and completed manuscripts. Deadline to enter: May 14, 2023.
The Highlight's Foundation is offering two sessions of the Whole Novel Workshop: a life-changing in-person retreat with amazing faculty members for those with a full novel manuscript they want to workshop.
From Bitsy Kemper’s blog: over 75 publishers accepting unsolicited picture book manuscripts — updated February 2023!
Check out this incredible list of upcoming events for KidLit writers!
For Querying Writers:
Manuscript Wishlist, probably the best way to search for agents online, has totally revamped their website. Read about the exciting changes here.
Every Friday, Operation Awesome offers one free query critique through their #QueryFriday contest.
I don’t know what’s going on with Twitter these days, but I assume Twitter pitch contests will continue to happen unless I hear otherwise. If you’re still on Twitter, it certainly doesn’t hurt to try. (After all, I found my agent through a Twitter pitch party. I am now an official success story.) So mark your calendar for these upcoming Twitter pitch parties. And be sure to read my article 13 Things to Know About Twitter Pitch Events.
April 6: #MoodPitch — Twitter pitch for all un-agented authors of all genres and age categories, with a mood board image added. (The pitch event in which I found my agent!)
Writing Conferences
The Perfect Your Process online summit runs from March 24th to 27th and is about improving your writing process.
Writers Digest is offering a virtual conference for mystery/thriller writers March 25-26.
The Writing Day Workshop “How to Get Published” Conferences will held both online and in person this year. I attended one of these conferences in person a few years ago, and I thought it was fantastic. I can’t vouch for the virtual version, but there are some benefits: recorded classes, no travel expenses, attend in your comfy pants. Plus, you can sign up for pitch sessions with agents for $29 a piece. Check out the upcoming conferences:
Minnesota Writing Workshop: March 25, 2023 (in-person in St. Paul)
Writing Workshop of San Francisco: April 14-15, 2023 (online)
Philadelphia Writing Workshop: April 22, 2023 (in-person)
San Diego Writing Workshop: April 29, 2023 (in-person)
Michigan Writing Workshop: April 29, 2023 (in-person)
Seattle Writing Workshop: April 29, 2023 (in-person)
Writing Conference of Los Angeles: May 13, 2023 (in-person)
The Washington Writers Conference will be held in Bethesda, MD May 12-13.
Early Bird tickets ($369) include three agent-pitch sessions and are available through Mar. 31, 2023.
For all those in the DC-MD-VA area, mark your calendars for the FREE Gaithersburg Book Festival on May 20. I’ll be there, and I might even be teaching a short workshop (TBD).
Working on a thriller, mystery, or crime fiction? Check out ThrillerFest in NYC, May 30-June 3.
For more writing conferences, check out this list or this list of 19 Writing Conferences for Emerging and Established Writers.
Love the de facto "writer in residence" thing.
This line from the WaPo article about reader pet peeves almost made me spit out my coffee: Susan C. Falbo is tired of “protagonists who have had a hard day, finally stagger home and take a scalding hot shower.”