ARCHIVE FOR Books & Reading
Being a "Good Enough" Writer is a Brilliant Strategy

By Katrin Schuman
All writers are a crazy mixture of egotistical, manic, single-minded, optimistic on the one hand and sensitive, catastrophizing, scattered and pessimistic on the other - at least all the ones I know. How do we live and produce work in a world filled with such extremes? Especially now when our political and physical reality is so chaotic?
October 8, 2020 | Katrin Schumann
Get Inspired: Time to Strategize for Writing Success

Are you finding it hard to write? We live in deeply unsettling times, and it's easy to get distracted by all that's going on in the world. Here's a brief list of ideas to jumpstart your writing and help you get out of your own head for a moment:
1) Apply to a writing contest. Years and years ago, I won a local short story prize, and it gave me the confidence I needed to keep plugging away at my writing
September 2, 2020 | Katrin Schumann
Books & Reading Craft Advice New Writing The Workshop The Writing Life
Reading Novels While Writing Novels: Yes or No?

I'm amazed by writers who stop reading in their genre while writing their own books. The majority of them seem to be worried about becoming overly influenced by the voice, themes and even plot of the book they're reading.
Personally, I can't imagine not reading fiction for the many years it takes me to complete a novel. And in terms of being influenced: I'm actively looking for inspiration and ideas. I want to be influenced.
August 5, 2020 | Katrin Schumann
Books & Reading Craft Advice New Writing The Workshop The Writing Life
Launching a Book During an Epidemic

By Katrin Schumann
For those of you reading this who haven't yet published your first book, I'm sure you've dreamed about your book launch. You'll have thought about whether to go big or small, have it at a bookstore, in an event space, bar or library, and who you hope might turn up (maybe even local media!).
There are a lot of misconceptions out there about launches - both the launch event itself and the "book tour" that happens afterwards. They're a bit like the three martini lunch which used to be common practice and underwritten by your ...
July 1, 2020 | Katrin Schumann
What You Need to Nail in the First Pages of Your Book

By Katrin Schumann
Last month, feeling unmoored and wanting to build community during self-isolation, I launched something I called #fivefreepages, in which I offered to critique five pages at the beginning of a nonfiction book or novel, free of charge
May 6, 2020 | Katrin Schumann

