5 Creative Cures for Writer's Block
psychcentral.com – Saturday July 30, 2022
It’s stressful when the words don’t come, when you’re sitting at your desk staring at the blinking cursor or the barren page. Minutes feel like hours. Hours feel like days.
Deadlines loom, and you’re still stuck and staring. A kind of dread begins building in your stomach and travels to your throat, and then peaks between your temples. It’s reminiscent of firecrackers exploding.
“Writer’s block, or any creative block, is really about fear,” according to Miranda Hersey, a writer, editor and creativity coach. The fear of not knowing where to start or we’re headed. The fear that we’re not good enough.
Blocks are tough. They can feel big and intimidating and impossible. But where there’s a block, there’s also a way out. Here are five ways to break through writer’s block.
New Literary Agent Listing: Loren R. Grossman
firstwriter.com – Friday July 29, 2022
Send one-page query, preferably by email (though snail mail is acceptable). No query-related phone calls.
New Magazine Listing: Tor.com
firstwriter.com – Thursday July 28, 2022
Most interested in pitches for essays, think pieces, list posts, reaction pieces, and reviews in the 1000-2500 word range (although also open to longer essays). If possible, please include 2-3 writing samples and/or links to your published work on other sites.
New Publisher Listing: WordCrafts Press
firstwriter.com – Wednesday July 27, 2022
We publish fiction, nonfiction, and stage plays for both the Christian market and the general market. We do not publish erotica.
New Writing North to launch skills hub in £600k project
thebookseller.com – Tuesday July 26, 2022
New Writing North, the creative writing and reading agency for the North of England, is launching a writing and publishing skills hub in autumn 2022, utilising a £600,000 programme to develop its reach.
Funded by the North of Tyne Combined Authority (NTCA) and other local sponsors, the hub aims to create a suite of educational and professional development opportunities for schools and teachers, students, young people and adult learners, and writers and small literary businesses in the region.
Taking place across Newcastle, North Tyneside and Northumberland, with accompanying online resources, the hub aims to open up opportunities for pupils interested in pursuing a career in the creative industries, in addition to offering networking and business skills training.
Meet the People Behind Some of Today's Best Small Publishers Specializing in Crime Fiction
crimereads.com – Tuesday July 26, 2022
Bless the small press! We talk a lot about how to make the big publishers accountable and more diverse, but let’s not forget there is another level of publishing where people have the freedom to follow their taste rather than having to justify each book’s profitability. I think most people in the publishing business feel like they could put together a damned good imprint given world enough and time. I do. So I gathered the founders and publishers of some of crime and crime fiction’s best small presses: Paul Oliver of Syndicate Books, an imprint devoted to bringing forgotten authors back into print; Charles Ardai of noir publisher Hard Case Crime; Sara Gran, whose brand-new imprint is Dreamland Books; Gregory Shepard of reissue enthusiast Stark House; Jason Pinter of Polis Books; and the late but welcome addition of Michael Nava of Amble Press. We talked quality, representation, resurrecting old books and conjuring new ones.
Joyce Carol Oates calls out the censorship of white, male authors
thepostmillennial.com – Tuesday July 26, 2022
Celebrated American author Joyce Carol Oates noted a literary trend on Sunday, which is that writing by white male authors is in a negative demand. She wrote that work by white male authors will not even be seen due to their race and sex. While Oates noted this issue on Sunday, it has been building in the arts community since at least 2004, as I wrote about in 2019.
"[A] friend who is a literary agent told me that he cannot even get editors to read first novels by young white male writers," Oates wrote, "no matter how good; they are just not interested. this is heartbreaking for writers who may, in fact, be brilliant, & critical of their own 'privilege.'"
Oates stated that this was "heartbreaking" for those writers who buy into the ideology of white privilege, and who may even be "critical" of it, but it is just as hard a pill to swallow for those white male writers who are not burdened by the inherent detriments associated with their race and sex.
New Literary Agent Listing: Tim Bates
firstwriter.com – Tuesday July 26, 2022
Represents a wide range of authors and is particularly interested in pop culture, narrative and serious non-fiction, food-writing, nature and the outdoors, sport and commercial non-fiction and fiction of all forms.
New Literary Agent Listing: Katie Salvo
firstwriter.com – Monday July 25, 2022
Has a background in literary criticism, philosophy, political theory, and history. She is particularly interested in representing women’s fiction, romance, children's books, middle grade, young adult, LGBTQ+, and historical biography.
I wrote my first book in 30 days. Here are 11 tips and tricks to writing a novel.
insider.com – Sunday July 24, 2022
In addition to working at Insider as an entertainment editor, this year I also became a published author.
My debut novel, "This Way Out," was published around the world on July 1.
It is the story of Amar, a British-Bangladeshi man who gets engaged to his partner, Joshua, and must tell his devout Muslim family that not only is he gay, but he's marrying a white man. Amar's confession sets off a chain of dramatic events — both heartbreaking and hilarious — as he navigates his family's disapproval of his sexuality, his continued grief over his mother, and a meddling future mother-in-law.
I wrote the first draft of "This Way Out" in one month, between mid-June and July 2020. It was a challenge, to say the least, but ultimately, I'm glad I pushed myself to write it so quickly. Or it might still only exist on my computer.
Here are my top tips if you want to turbo-boost your writing career and finish your manuscript, too.
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