Your #1 Secret Weapon: Writing Communities

Building a supportive network takes time and courage. Novelist Katrin Schumann argues that it’s worth starting to cultivate community early on, even if your instinct or your preference is to work alone. This post first appeared on JaneFriedman.com.
I’ve always found people who make movies to be awe-inspiring—in order to evoke a world and a story on screen, they need to work together with dozens of other professionals, from front-end people like actors and directors, to back-end people like sound editors
Katrin Schumann
Countdown to Your Book Launch

Katrin Schumann explores what it's really like for authors in the months before launching a new book into the marketplace.
A book launch is a prolonged, and frankly rather strange, experience. You've already been working for what seems like ages (and sometimes is ages) on a manuscript. Eons pass as you prepare that manuscript for the reality of a commercial marketplace: editing, cover design, interior design, more editing, acknowledgements, nightmares about who you've forgotten to acknowledge, and diving into promotional activities. Your book--it's themes, characters, the whole point of it--seems far away now. It's become a product, one ...
Katrin Schumann
What We Want out of Workshops

In this post, GrubStreet Instructor Ben Berman thinks about the importance of both praise and scrutiny when participating in writing workshops.
It was my four-year-old’s first day at her new school and she was clinging to my leg so tightly that I was beginning to lose circulation. Don’t leave me, she kept saying, as though I was abandoning her at an orphanage.
Ben Berman
Why You Need to Figure Out Your Book's Genre

Authors bristle at having to fit their books into neat boxes according to genre—yet the industry and readers continue to demand that we do so. Katrin Schumann explores why, and how best to find your genre.
Personally, I've found it quite challenging to figure out the genre of my novels. It seems overly simplistic to categorize my own work according to genres, and differentiating between them can be hard
Katrin Schumann
10 Holiday Gifts for the Writer in Your Life

It's that time of
Crystal King

