No one has to be patient anymore. We can publish books from our computers. We can get messages anywhere, anytime. We can have whole libraries of books instantly zapped to whatever our latest gadget is, or a complete film festival delivered at the click of a button. We can plug ourselves directly into our music…
Writing Advice
Writing Advice
Sacred Space
by Barbara Abercrombie • • 12 Comments
The date you start writing about your life should be memorable, like a wedding date or a birthday. Or like becoming a non-smoker. The last time I gave up cigarettes I set the date. None of this drama of suddenly squashing out a cigarette and exclaiming “That’s the last cigarette I’ll ever smoke!” (though I…
Writing Advice
Switchbacks Up The Mountain
by Barbara Abercrombie • • 17 Comments
When I’m stuck and fearful of writing the first line, when I need to punch an essay or book idea right down to the ground to get a grip on it, I drive up to a cabin I have two hours north of Los Angeles. The highway up the mountain, while a perfectly good road…
Writing Advice
Writing Advice from Richard Rhodes
by Barbara Abercrombie • • 3 Comments
"Whatever your purpose, the best remedy for fear of writing, any kind of writing, is the Knickerbocker Rule: ass to chair. If you’re afraid you can’t write, the answer is to write. Every sentence you construct adds weight to the balance pan. If you’re afraid of what other people will think of your…
Writing Advice
Too Old to Start Writing?!
by Barbara Abercrombie • • 15 Comments
Two readers of this blog checked in recently under comments wondering if they were too old to start a writing career. I wanted to leap through cyberspace yelling, "No, no, no! Start writing, keep writing!" Listen, if you're a hundred and ten you're not too old (and one of these readers was 35! The…
Writing Advice
6 Ways Get Your Reader’s Attention
by Barbara Abercrombie • • 9 Comments
Did it work? Did you come to this post because of the 6 in the title? A daughter just sent me the following clip: Why everybody loves numbers in a headlineEvery blogger knows that the easiest way to get readers' attention is by putting numbers in your headline, notes Brandon Cox. A post with…
Writing Advice
Back to Business: How To Become a Writer
by Barbara Abercrombie • • 6 Comments
1. Read 2. Write That's it. Read the writers you love and figure out what they do that makes you love them. Then write. Pages and pages of stories and memories and observations and lists and feelings. And keep writing. And keep reading.
Writing Advice
How To Write by Elmore Leonard
by Barbara Abercrombie • • 7 Comments
This says it all. Rules for writing by Elmore Leonard: 1 Never open a book with weather. If it's only to create atmosphere, and not a character's reaction to the weather, you don't want to go on too long. The reader is apt to leaf ahead looking for people. There are exceptions. If you…
Writing Advice
Weather for Writers
by Barbara Abercrombie • • 6 Comments
I don’t know how it was where you are, but in Los Angeles all anyone talked about this week was the weather: Heavy rain in town! Mudslides in the foothills! Snow in the mountains! And back East: Snow! Snow! Snow! My cousin Sally (the free lance editor who some of you have worked with)…
Writing Advice
Patience for Writers
by Barbara Abercrombie • • 10 Comments
Here’s a wonderful excerpt from Dennis Palumbo’s post about the need for writers to have patience on Huffington Post today, 1/28/10, – check it out. "In the film Chariots of Fire, someone says, regarding Eric Liddle's refusal to race on the Sabbath, that the boy's faith needs to be honored; that the Olympics officials…
