writing

Step-by-Step Guide to Setting up a Writing Critique Group or a Manuscript Swap

beccakinla advice, Uncategorized, writing, writing groups, writing process Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

A little birdie told me what to write about this week.

Okay, I’m exaggerating. But recently, quite a few people have either asked me how to advance their writing skills (answer: join a critique group) or how to arrange a critique group or what they should do if they cannot attend a critique group. And while I’ve discussed critique groups on the blog before, I think it’s worth a new blog post dedicated to this topic, because I’ve been helping run critique groups for nearly five (or is it six?) years now, and I’ve learned a lot.

Why Join a Critique Group?

You only will grow as a writer if you write regularly. But motivating yourself to write regularly, with no deadlines, is challenging. Getting useful feedback can also be challenging. For instance, you might have a close friend or relative read it, but will they be objective? And you could take a class, but that might involve spending money. (Note: I think it can be worthwhile to take writing classes – but I don’t have much spare change and won’t assume you have it either.) You can remedy all these problems with a single solution: the critique group.

How to create a critique group:

Continue reading →

Whoops! Missed my Wednesday post.

beccakinla Uncategorized, writer's block, writing, writing exercise, writing process Tags: , , 2 Comments

Ack! I’ve been trying to post weekly on Wednesdays, and I completely spaced this week. (I’ve got a good excuse – all my kids are on vacation.) Anyway, I’m taking a moment to write something now, before Shabbos, to make sure I stay in the groove.

I struggled to make a writing deadline last Friday and actually missed it, in the end. This is very unusual for me. I rarely experience writer’s block, but here it was and I was feeling very, very low.

I finally finished the story and turned it in on Tuesday. What got me over the hump?

  1. Advice from members of my writing group.
  2. Contemplating why I couldn’t write.

That second one flipped a switch in my head from “I just can’t finish this story!” to a frenzy of writing in which everything just poured out. It turned out that I was simply approaching the story from the wrong direction. So here’s my…

Writer’s tip for the day:

If you are stalling out while writing a story, approach things from a different direction. Change the POV. Change the tense. Change the genre. If the writing is emotive, write it with clinical dispassion, and if you are writing with that dispassionate voice, mix in more emotions. If you have been focusing on dialogue, start writing a description of the scenery, or vice versa.

Or, my favorite piece of advice for fiction writers, have a long talk or “interview” with your characters. How do they perceive the central conflict of the story? What do they think will happen next?

Trade-offs: editing vs writing

beccakinla editing, writing, writing process Tags: , , , , 4 Comments

I’ve been spending a lot of time copyediting (and proofreading and plain ole editing) the last couple weeks.

I have not been spending a lot of time writing.

I have mixed feelings. Editing brings in money. It is easier. I get paid faster, at least usually. I get a certain pleasure from helping other people sound clever and polished.

But I have my own projects to complete. In between editing, I’ve been revising a story I wrote last year, and I wrote a tiny piece of flash fiction yesterday while my kids did their homework at the library. However, I’ve got more to write, so much more. The ideas zoom around my head at night.

I worry that I’m trading a bit of quick money for my own creative accomplishments. Yet there are bills to pay.

Hmpf.

Fan mail: the way to make an author’s heart go pitter-patter

beccakinla inyan magazine, review, writer, writing Tags: , , , , , , , , , 2 Comments

I haven’t been posting much this month because I’ve been very, very busy. Thank G-d, in a good way. After failing to write any fiction for a couple months, I wrote three short stories – bang! bang! bang! – and a few teensy other projects besides.

I had the kids home with me on Friday because of the Mid-Winter Vacation many Jewish schools stick between semesters. I was a bit under the weather and had to shop AND cook for Shabbos because I’d been too tired after painting with the kids and taking them to a museum on Thursday to do the grocery shopping then, as I usually do.

The exhaustion! The squabbles! The noise! It was ugly.

And then I opened up Inyan magazine and saw this:

Fan mail for The Perfect Shabbos

Instantly, all was better.

The first week of 2016: goal setting and keeping on track

beccakinla advice, goals, Uncategorized, writing, writing exercise Tags: , , , , , , , , 5 Comments

As I mentioned in my last post, I saw quite a bit I didn’t like when I looked back on my writing accomplishments for 2015. A colleague “happened” to reach out to me right around then to ask if we could be writing buddies. Basically, we touch base once a week to confess how much writing we did or didn’t do during the week, as well as swap a bit of writing we did. We’re hoping this will keep us accountable and help us reach our goals. Today was the second Sunday my new partner and I swapped our accountability emails. So far, so good. Last week, I got a great critique out of it, as well as some insights about how I’ve been spending my time.

All of this means I had to pin down some goals. Continue reading →

2015 in hindsight

beccakinla Uncategorized, writer, writing, writing exercise, writing process Tags: , , , , , , , , , 3 Comments

I usually review my professional year just before Rosh Hashanah, but when Erika Dreifus posted last week about Annette Gendler‘s “Artist and Writer’s Workbook,” she piqued my interest. I moseyed over to Annette’s site to acquire my copy (free download with sign-up to Annette’s newsletter). Today, I finally sat down to complete it.

On the financial front, it was a bit sobering. Continue reading →