“Begin at the beginning,” the King said, very gravely, “and go on till you come to the end: then stop” (Alice in Wonderland)

Starting Your Novel – Part 1 (A Special Multi-part report from a Writers Workshop) By Elizabeth Cutright © 2012 The Daily Creative Writer So you want to write a book? Perhaps you’ve already started – and restarted – plenty of times already. Either way, there’s always more to learn when it comes to writing long-form, […]

Working for the weekend…

Selling your content, and yourself, to editors and the online audience (Notes from a Writers Workshop, Part 5) By Elizabeth Cutright © 2012 The Daily Creative Writer (Previous entries in this series here, here here and here) As I’ve said many times, I’m not a big believer in writing to fulfill some dream of fame and fortune. To […]

“X” Marks the Spot

Where are you? By Elizabeth Cutright © 2012 The Daily Creative Writer Whenever my friends and I lose each other in a crowd or a super store, on of us will yell out “Marco” and wait for the answering “Polo!” It’s goofy, but it never fail to make me smile. It’s also reassuring – we’re […]

You’re A Writer

You’re Not An Impostor I was at a party a few weeks back, and a friend of mine said something so witty, so original that I replied, “watch out, I’m going to steal that for my next story!” Everyone laughed, joking that their words were no longer safe in my company. “You bet,” I replied. […]

Overcoming Your Slacker Tendencies

Filling the Nooks and Crannies So how do you write? It seems like a simple question, but I bet my answer would be different from yours. In fact, I bet my answer this afternoon would be slightly different from what I’d say tomorrow, or what I would’ve described yesterday. One thing I know for sure […]

Getting Creative With The Truth

Tips and Tools of the Trade: Notes from the Writer’s Workshop (Part 2) (Please see yesterday’s blog for an explanation and introduction.) From the presentation “Creative Nonfiction” Prior to working as an editor, I was briefly a staff writer for our publishing house – churning 3000 word features on everything from road maintenance safety to heavy […]

Telling Tales and Spilling Secrets

Tips and Tools of the Trade: Notes from a Writer’s Workshop (Part 1) Sadly, the economic downturn killed one of the most valuable programs offered by my hometown’s continuing education program – a mini writer’s workshop. The workshop – designed as a one day distillation of the larger, week-long writer’s conference hosted by the city […]

Date nights and the creative pause.

“Even the smallest amount of self-nurturance will have an immediate and beneficial impact on our writing,” advises Julia Cameron in The Right to Write.

Drama As Creative Fuel

Drama – a renewable resource By Elizabeth Cutright “Keep the drama on the page.” Julia Cameron, The Right to Write “I refuse to engage in any drama except the drama that serves me and my purposes. I practice what I preach: if you dump drama into my life, I will put it and you onto […]

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“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed…”

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