Next Chapters is a biweekly feature spotlighting graduates of GrubStreet’s Novel Incubator program, which has been running since 2010. Novel Incubator Year: 7 Current Project: two novels—one set on the West Coast explores the futility yet necessity of creating art in…
I don’t think I’m the only writer who finds life interfering with art from time to time, or—often. Whether I simply allow it or embrace distraction, I’m not sure. But I jilt my manuscript repeatedly, sometimes for a weekend, sometimes…
It is bleak midwinter, the days are short and dark, and the writing woes loom large. Rejections are piled up at your door thicker than the snowdrifts, the writer’s block is larger than the pyramids of Giza, or you just…
The Little Plot That Couldn’t Based on the classic fairy tale that captured hearts everywhere, The Little Plot That Couldn’t features a large beluga whale trying to get up a mountain using toothpicks as walking sticks. Unsurprisingly it gets stuck….
It’s hard to start to write. No matter the number of chapters or scenes or even emails I’ve written, when I have a blank page in front of me, I stop in my tracks. I see half a dozen different…
Sometimes I drive myself crazy. I procrastinate. I suffer from imposter syndrome. And to be perfectly honest, I’m a little lazy. But over the years, I’ve monitored my writing habits and learned techniques to leverage my weaknesses, as well as…