Terry Shames's Blog: 7 Criminal Minds, page 157

Something old, something new... by Cathy Ace

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Spark It Up!

You’ve just read Marie Kondo’s book “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing,”  and you’re getting ready to clean up your writing space/office. What things “spark joy” and what would you get rid of? Do you keep old drafts of stories/novels, e-versions, paper? Copies of your books, others’ books? Knickknacks? Etc.

From Frank

Spark It Up!  That's actually the name of the Co-Ed softball team I played on this summer. I think there may been a...

Life Changing Magic (Not)

Q: You’ve just read Marie Kondo’s book “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing,”  and you’re getting ready to clean up your writing space/office. What things “spark joy” and what would you get rid of? Do you keep old drafts of stories/novels, e-versions, paper? Copies of your books, others’ books? Knickknacks? Etc.
-from Susan






You’re kidding, right? I don’t keep all paper drafts but I keep the last one I have just as proof of authorship....

Teach Me Tonight

Were you formally trained as a writer? i.e., an MFA or college curriculum? Can you teach writing? Does it matter if you went to school for it?





The last “writing” course I took was in grade school, and that was penmanship. So, no, I have not had “formal” training as a writer. That’s not to say I feel formal training doesn’t matter. I don’t know what’s involved in a writing program, but I know many wonderful writers who have MFAs, so there is surely tremendous value to be found in a structured c...

Bookish by degree

Were you formally trained as a writer? i.e., an MFA or college curriculum? Can you teach writing? Does it matter if you went to school for it?
by Dietrich
Outside of secondary school, I don’t have any formal training as a writer so I can’t speak about something I haven’t participated in.
Writing’s a creative process, and what works for one, may not work for another. For me, learning to write meant trying different approaches until I found what worked best. At the beginning I knew I wanted to tel...

Learning and Teaching that Elusive Core

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Being Schooled in Writing

Question: Were you formally trained as a writer? i.e., an MFA or college curriculum? Can you teach writing? Does it matter if you went to school for it?

Brenda Chapman here.Like many writers, I've made a career of reading from a very young age. The reason I open with this is because I believe that reading widely is an education that every author can access, no matter income or formal schooling.
When it came time for me to go to university, I chose a field that seemed to be the only things I was...

More Books in Heaven and Earth

Do you read the kind of books that you write or do you tend to read books that are the opposite or different – and why?

by Paul D. Marks

These days I’m lucky to find the time to read anything. I don’t know where the time goes, but it goes. A lot of it is spent on writing and related tasks. Writing is a major time suck, but a good one. I also get asked to read a lot of books to blurb or for similar reasons, so that limits the amount of totally discretionary reading I have time for, though I’m tr...

Shall I compare thee to a police procedural? by Catriona

Reading: Do you read the kind of books that you write or do you tend to read books that are the opposite or different – and why?
I'm following Cathy's lead from yesterday - it's always a good idea - and starting by saying what I write: a series of presposterous 1930s detective novels (I truly think that should be an official genre; contemporary domestic noir psychological suspense thriller standalones (I don't know what to call them so I just use all the words and hope for the best (...

One of these things is not like the other... by Cathy Ace

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