Words on Words

Writing since 1998

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Interview with Jo Knowles

If there is one author interview that you read, please make it inkygirl’s interview with YA author Jo Knowles. Her technique for creating a storyboard is reason enough, but there’s also this:

I am as impatient as the next person, but for new writers, I can’t emphasize this enough: Please don’t treat the time it takes you to get published as a race, or measure your journey against someone else’s and use that as a marker for success and failure. Instead, think of your journey to publication as a travel experience to savor.


I know this is true, but it’s easy to forget. Even 10 years into this journey, it’s hard to hear excellent news of my MFA colleagues publishing and not feel like I’m behind. This quote will need to be hung above my desk.

Filed under Jo Knowles Inkygril author interview revision plotting advice to writers

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The Bell Jar reimagined

The Bell Jar Parody


I actually don’t have a problem with the anniversary cover of The Bell Jar* but the parodies are priceless.

*Critics claim the new cover is too chick lit-ish (don’t even get me started on that), but I think the expression on the reflection shows a clear disgust, bordering on self-loathing that’s indicative of Esther’s frustration at society’s expectations of women. 


(img source: @cethanleahy)

Filed under sylvia plath covers

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13 Resolutions To Make You A Better, More Productive Writer

The strategies listed here are things we writers probably already know, but need to read again anyway. Also, it provides a handy, almost-fill-in-the-blank template to kick off your resolutions.

My January resolutions are to write one hour per day, read one book per week, submit 5 query letters, and send in the application for the advanced writing workshop I’ve had my eye on.

Good luck!

Filed under writing resolutions advice to writers duh moments

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fishingboatproceeds: Time Magazine just named The Fault in Our Stars the best novel of 2012—ahead of (Booker Award winner) Bringing Up the Bones, ahead of J. K. Rowling and Zadie Smith and Junot Diaz. Unbelievable. I am astonished and grateful and I have a strong desire to curse with joy, but I won’t, because this is tumblr, where no one uses foul language. Congratulations, John Green! A well deserved honor.

fishingboatproceeds:

Time Magazine just named The Fault in Our Stars the best novel of 2012—ahead of (Booker Award winner) Bringing Up the Bones, ahead of J. K. Rowling and Zadie Smith and Junot Diaz.

Unbelievable. I am astonished and grateful and I have a strong desire to curse with joy, but I won’t, because this is tumblr, where no one uses foul language.

Congratulations, John Green! A well deserved honor.

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“Part of becoming a writer or artist is learning to love not only what you do, but how you do it.”

~~~~~
That’s my paraphrase of Rebecca Stead at Sunday’s Texas Book Festival Tribute to Madeline L’Engle. The discussion had turned to process and after Rebecca Stead mentioned she was a slow writer, Hope Larson asked if she’d heard that R.L. Stine writes a book a month.

I spend a lot of time agonizing over how much I don’t get done or trying to change my process to be faster or more productive and I know I’m not alone. My writing friends have recruited me in trying everything from fast drafting to setting a schedule to accountability buddies. We’re all out there looking to be better, faster, more productive.

Again, I didn’t catch the exact quote because I was being blinded by the light bulb going off above my head. Instead of spending so much energy trying to fight against my process, I should just learn to love it, slow that it sometimes is.

It’s a good revelation to have just before NaNoWriMo. It’s the one part of the writing process that I look forward to. I was thinking of skipping it this year. I have one mss that needs to be pushed out into the world and another that needs more revision attention than I’ve been able to give it. But dammit if I’m giving up an exhilarating month of fast drafting, logging word counts, and putting my head down and getting lost in my book.

I’ll have to spend the other 11 months learning to love my writing process, but November? I’ve got that one down.

Filed under writing process NaNoWriMo Rebecca Stead texas book festival

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When I contacted Colson Whitehead, the MacArthur-genius-award-winning author who last year released “Zone One,” a literary novel about a zombie takeover of Manhattan — my message to him included the words “literary” and “genre” — he replied politely that he’d “rather shoot myself in the face” than have another discussion about the difference between one category of literature and another.

“Other people’s labels,” Whitehead answered. “Other people’s hang-ups.”

The Passage of Justin Cronin - NYTimes.com / THANK YOU COLSON WHITEHEAD for being THE BEST. (via gwendabond)

(via novaren)

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A Writer Without a Publisher Is Like a Fish Without a Bicycle

  1. A writer is a writer because she writes, not because somebody in New York said, “I think I can sell this.”
  2. A writer must write the stories in her heart, the stories she believes in. Nobody else gets to define her art or limit her creativity.
  3. A writer deserves a good publisher and should never be thought less of because she prefers to be unpublished rather than inadequately published.
  4. A writer deserves to be treated as a creative force, the indispensable partner in publishing, and not as someone who should be grateful to be published at all.

— Jennifer Cruise

(Source: jennycruise.com)

Filed under writing publication advice to writers jennifer cruise self-doubt