Brilliant at Breakfast
Did you miss your opportunity to ask agents and editors your burning questions? Here’s a breakdown of what you missed. Writers’ Morning Out did not meet in November as the date conflicted with the Nc Writers’ Network Fall Conference in Durham. If you did not go, and therefore missed the annual Brilliant at Breakfast […]
Why, oh why, was my manuscript rejected?
Last month’s Slush Pile was another inspiring, interesting, and informative session, filled with praise for work well done and suggestions to make work better. Noah Stetzer (Associate Director, Bull City Press), Tracy Crow (Tracy Crow Literary Agency), and Ty Stumpf (Poet and Humanities Chair, Central Carolina Community College), would have continued to read many […]
So, you want to self-publish your manuscript—
Self-publishing with Graham Bird So, you want to self-publish your manuscript—easy peasy, right? Well, maybe. It all depends on what you want to be when you grow up. That is the question Graham Bird, asks all his marketing clients. Graham is asking what you want to and why. The answers he says will prevent […]
Writing Is An Adventure
National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) began in 1999 as a way to encourage twenty-one would-be novel writers to complete a manuscript in a month’s time. Fifty thousand words was set as the goal because Chris Baty, the founder, determined that was the length of the shortest novel on his bookshelf—Huxley’s Brave New Word. NaNoAriMO quickly […]
Ekphratic Writing: Ways to Generate Poems and Short Fiction
Ekphrasis: One artist looking at the art of another and finding inspiration through reflection. When looking at art, we can record what we see in the work either literally or metaphorically. We can record how the art makes us think or feel about the world or about ourselves. We can record information about the […]
Introduction to Literary Genres
One question pops up in discussions about marketing, book proposals, and social media: know your audience. Who are we writing for? Who do we want to read our work? Hiding behind these questions is this: are we providing what our potential readers want? Genres are a fundamental part of the answer, whether the manuscript […]
Social Media Primer
Writers’ Morning Out May, 15 2021 Panel Discussion on Social Media Summary by Jody Savage Moderator Carol Phillips convened this panel discussion on the subject of What are social media and “platform” and how are they to build an audience? The panelists were: Charles Fiori – communications director for the North Carolina Writers […]
Lessons From the Slush Pile!
Sixteen brave writers submitted their first pages of poetry or prose to our Slush Pile! event April 17, 2021. Our panel—Noah Stetzer, Ty Stumpf, and Tracy Crow—provided insightful critiques and helpful advice. They also admitted their biases. Three themes emerged in the discussion: Everything that is important needs to be on the first […]