Friday Finds for Writers

Treasure ChestWriting-related resources, news, and reflections to read over the weekend.

  • I must admit that I agree with Susan Kushner Resnick: Nonfiction should be nonfiction (or, “what don’t you understand about the word ‘non’?”). But not everyone concurs. What do you think?
  • On the Virginia Quarterly Review blog, Bethanne Patrick discerns “the biggest danger to anyone’s writing”.
  • Another excellent post from Carol Tice, this time on “the deadly math mistake that will make your freelance business fail.” (In other news, I’ll confess that Carol’s new guest-post policy disappoints me, since I’m no longer eligible to pitch.)
  • I don’t have a regular professorial gig, but I can nonetheless commiserate with much of Cathy Day’s post, “For the Man Who Called Me for Advice About How to Get Published.”
  • Here is something that I know that I need to (re)consider: “How to Organize the Writing Samples on Your Writer Website.” Many thanks to the Renegade Writer blog for posting and urging that consideration along. (I somehow feel as though my own situation is complicated by the fact that in addition to the diversity of nonfiction that I write, I’m also a fictionist and poet. If you have examples of sites that negotiate this challenge well–including your own–please share, in comments.)
  • Have a great weekend, everyone. See you back here on Monday!

    6 thoughts on “Friday Finds for Writers

    1. Hi Erika —

      Thanks for the mentions as usual. I know my guest-post change won’t please everyone, but it’s a sanity move for me.

      1. Erika Dreifus says:

        Understood, Carol. I’ll just hope that my pitch wasn’t one of those that led you to the new policy!

    2. That last link was excellent. I tend to list my clips chronologically, because that’s easiest. (AKA, because I’m lazy.) But easy isn’t always good. I have to reconsider.

      The bigger problem: the samples on my website are rather sparse–I have just one example each of a feature, something SF/Fantasy, something with a special needs focus, and a feature. All of them are kid lit, because that’s what I was publishing up until 6 months ago. I need more, and I need to make sure it’s well-organized.

      I think you’ve given me my first post-Pesach project, as well as tips (via the link) to help me out. Thanks!

      And I liked the Susan Kushner Resnick bit, too. (If you want to be a little more with your CNF, just start writing fiction. Genuine fiction. Then you can condense, etc. as much as you want. That’s what I do.) Although, I have to say that I disagree with spilling everything. I think that everyone selects details that forward their point (as they see it), and leave others out. Everyone. No one’s writing what they ate for breakfast, its temperature and quantity, and whether they ran out of toilet paper while they were in the bathroom this morning. Unless they are really bored, have a neuropsychological disorder, or are addicted to Facebook. And they won’t get paid for that.

      1. Erika Dreifus says:

        Rebecca, I think I need to make the clips project a central post-Pesach project, too!

    3. Amy Morgan says:

      Thanks for the article by Susan Kushner Resnick. I struggle with being true to the standards of CNF and this will definitely help. Another useful bit for me Erika, as always.

      1. Erika Dreifus says:

        Very glad, Amy!

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