Sportswriting, anyone? 8 Tips from National Sports Editors
By Kristine Meldrum Denholm
Posted on Wednesday, November 5, 2014
As a decades-long suffering Cleveland fan (read: no championships in my lifetime — yet), I’m loyal to my teams. There’s something to be said about rooting for the underdog, anyways. The same could be said about writing: though it causes sharp, stabbing pains sometimes, you can’t NOT write. Writing — like cheering for your beloved hometown or alma mater — is in our blood. Here’s what I’ve learned from my sports and my writing addictions: Stay the course. Because won’t it mean more when you — er, I mean they — finally win? That you worked your way through the lean years? Continue reading →
Uncategorized | -->An Impulse that Paid Off
By Linda Riebel
Posted on Wednesday, October 29, 2014
I got a book idea over dinner with an opera star.
My favorite Metropolitan Opera singer had invited my husband and me to dinner to thank us for bringing so many subscribers into the fold. She regaled us with one tale after another of backstage shenanigans, last-minute emergencies, and sharing the stage with Leontyne Price, Placido Domingo, Franco Corelli, and other stars of the 1960s and 1970s. “Miss Dalis,” I exclaimed, “When is your memoir coming out?” She said she had no intention of producing one. On the spot I decided to write a book about her. After all, someone had to do it. Continue reading →
Uncategorized | -->An Essential Tool for Writers: Building a Creative Community
By Janice Lynch Schuster
Posted on Wednesday, October 22, 2014
I spent many years participating in career days at local schools, asking classrooms at every grade level the same question: What tools do you think a writer must have? For kindergarteners, the answers were always basic: You need to know the alphabet, they would say, or You need to learn to read.
From there, I’d steer them to other writing tools. Writers need, I’d say, to learn the rules—and when to break them. We need to learn to work with others, as we often find ourselves working with teams, some of whom may not like what we turn in. We need a healthy dose of play—inspiration can come when we stand up and move, or simply hang out for a while in a world that does not include a computer screen. Continue reading →
Uncategorized | -->MFA Programs: What are they and how do they work?
By Cynthia Rosi
Posted on Wednesday, October 15, 2014
You’ve been freelancing for years. Clients love your work. But something about your writing isn’t pleasing you. What do you do next?
Online classes, books on writing, and critique groups might not bring enough skilled analysis to guide you deeper into your craft. That’s when an MFA, two years of intensive study in Creative Non-Fiction or Fiction, can really help.
There are two types of MFA programs: low-residency, and on-campus. I didn’t have the option of moving cities to attend a university with an on-campus program focused on social justice, so a low-residency program was for me. Continue reading →
Uncategorized | -->Small Writers Group Nets Big Results
By Theresa Sullivan Barger
Posted on Wednesday, October 8, 2014
The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, FastCompany.com, Columbia Journalism Review, Family Circle, Parents, The Atlantic.com, Philanthropy, Poynter Online – these are just some of the places the bylines of our small writers group members have appeared for their first time since we started meeting 10 months ago.
We originally formed as a monthly accountability group, but soon evolved into much more. We set up a closed Facebook page where the eight of us could post questions and share the wisdom of the group. Our virtual newsroom replicated the days when we could slide our chair over to a coworker to ask how she would handle that day’s challenge. We soon switched to meeting every two weeks. Continue reading →
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