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Friday Find for Writers: Robert Lee Brewer’s April Platform Challenge

by Erika Dreifus on
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“One of the most important tools for a writer trying to find success in today’s media environment is a strong platform. That’s part of the reason I devote so much time to the topic on MNINB. However, I’ve been thinking about how to get even more hands on with helping writers build their online platforms, and I think I know the solution: A month-long platform building challenge.”

April begins this weekend! So go on over to Robert’s blog and see what he had in mind for this challenge. I’ll be following along, that’s for sure.

And if a platform challenge isn’t your thing, maybe a poetry challenge is!

Have a great weekend. See you back here on Monday.

The Wednesday Web Browser for Writers

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled
  • Let’s begin with some reflections after my own heart: Kelly James-Enger’s “Love Versus Money: Can You Write for Both?”
  • Next: a variation on our own “Web Browser”: Robert Lee Brewer’s collection of “Advice for Writers.” Check out this recent installment.
  • Another provocative writing prompt from Midge Raymond. (I’m eager to take some time to work on this one!)
  • Freelance advice from Adam Sternbergh, New York Times Magazine Culture Editor.
  • Finally: Am I too terrible for thinking that this is an interesting idea?

    • The Wednesday Web Browser for Writers

    by Erika Dreifus on
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  • I’m so grateful to those writers who are sharing their AWP wisdom with those of us who couldn’t make it to Chicago for the conference. For instance, throughout this week, Chloe Yelena Miller is posting presentations from a panel titled “Will Write for Food: Writers Working Outside Academia.”
  • Continuing with that theme: Fiction Writers Review shares Sarah Van Arsdale’s awesome AWP-based success story.
  • And over on her blog, Cathy Day continues to post items relating to the panel on “A Novel Problem: Moving from Story to Book in the MFA Program.”
  • In other news: What sort of music helps you write? Here’s my take on Chopin.
  • Attention, biographers: The Leon Levy Center for Biography is planning what looks to be a phenomenal (and free!) conference in New York for Thursday, March 29. I’ll keep an eye out for any videos that become available for those of us who can’t attend (even if we live in New York).
  • On the #writerwithadayjob theme: Check out “A Day in the Life,” a post by Eric Weinstein on the Ploughshares blog.

    • Friday Finds: Five Ways to Benefit from AWP (Without Attending the Conference)

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled

    Although it may be somewhat difficult to believe (depending on how much time you’re spending on Twitter this week, and how many writer-types you follow), not everyone is attending the annual conference of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) right now.

    And here’s something that may be even more surprising: There’s plenty to gain and glean from a quick-and-easy trip (no luggage! no airport delays!) to the organization’s website.Here are five examples:

  • Searchable database of writers’ conferences, centers, residencies, festivals, and retreats.
  • Online guide to writing programs (graduate and undergraduate).
  • Selection of craft-focused articles from AWP’s magazine, The Writer’s Chronicle.
  • Selection of career-advice articles from the AWP Job List.
  • “Advice for Grantseekers from the National Endowment for the Arts,” a podcast from last year’s conference (scroll down to Episode 12; many of the other episodes on this page are limited to listeners with [membership] eLink access, but Episode 12 is available to all.

    • AWP membership does offer, as they say, some privileges. But everything I’ve listed just above is available to anyone who visits the site.

    Enjoy, and have a great weekend!

    Friday Find: Prompts for (and from) Poets & Writers

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled

    One of the weekly e-newsletters I most enjoy receiving comes from Poets & Writers. It’s titled “The Time Is Now,” and it features three writing prompts, one each designed for poets, fictionists, and writers of creative nonfiction. Sadly, too often I can do little more than move the email containing the newsletter to a “prompts & exercises” folder for later review–I have to get to that day job, after all!–but sometimes, even the sheer act of reading the prompts makes me feel inspired. That happened yesterday–the cnf prompt (“Five Things I Know”) really clicked for me and I’m determined to follow through on it SOON!

    You can see past and present prompts on this webpage (and if you look carefully between the boxes for Poetry and CNF prompts you’ll see a link that will help you subscribe to the newsletter, too).

    Enjoy, and have a great weekend. See you back here on Monday!