Here Are Your Quarterly Flash Friday Stories!

posted in: Flash Friday 0

WAG has some truly talented and imaginative writers! We posted these three visual prompts in January and asked members to submit stories—500 words or less, any genre—in response. Here they are: Jenny Dearinger chose photo #1 (Double Exposure 1965): CHOICES by Jenny Dearinger   I stood in front of the … Read More

Writing Psychology Right!

While most writers are astute observers of human nature, they may not know the ins and outs of the psychotherapy field nor the specific symptoms and causes of various mental disorders. As a reader, I sometimes wince at a blatant mistake regarding some aspect of psychology in an otherwise well-written … Read More

Perseverance: Encouragement for People Who Ask “How” to Write

As someone with the “gift” of gab, telling stories has never been a struggle for me. Fantasies fight for prominence in my dreams. Ideas wake me from sleep in the dead of night, demand my attention while I drive through town on errands, interrupt my words when I am in … Read More

Welcome to Our First Flash Friday

  We were so looking forward to a horror-infused story about the black cloud of ectoplasm that appears to be haunting this poor woman. (Who you gonna call? I ain’t afraid of no ghosts.) Alas, we will tuck this photo back into the blank journal from which it came, and … Read More

Girls of Tender Age: A Memoir – Book Review

Friends in my exercise class often share tidbits of information and recommendations: a good Netflix movie (The Wife with Glen Close) a favorite series (Last Tango in Halifax) an alternative to a pumice stone for removing a mineral ring inside a toilet bowl (220 grit 3M Drywall-Sanding screen—see image) a … Read More

A Lesson from a Wolf

posted in: How To 2

One of the enjoyable aspects about writing is that it is a lifelong endeavor; there is always more to learn, and sometimes insights come unexpectedly and from unusual quarters. When it comes to the process of writing a story, I lean more towards being a “pantser” than a “plotter.” Once … Read More

Call for Submissions in Our New and Expanded Blog Topics

WAG wants to entice you—yes, YOU—to throw off your beach towel and wade into the refreshing pool that is the Hogtowne Quill. To that end, we are introducing three new dedicated blog topics and expanding a fourth. These are: Humor & Satire (500-1,000 words) Do you have any writing or … Read More

How WAG Can Benefit You

WAG’s mission is all about writers helping writers. (Check out this video!) Whatever stage of the writing life you are in—from just getting started to already having published your work—we have you covered. Here is a list of all the ways that becoming part of the WAG community can help … Read More

Michael Tomaino’s Superhero Workshop: Summary

The event was a smash success, in my personal opinion. Why? Because everyone involved was so incredibly amazing. I was blown away by the personal stories that people were willing to share. It was fascinating to hear everyone’s different adventures through life and how they’ve made a difference in people’s … Read More

What Does it Mean to Be a Member of a Local Writers’ Association Like WAG?

Have you ever noticed something about interest groups? Like book groups or cooking groups or writing groups? Actually, any group run by volunteers manifests certain specific characteristics, regardless of the common theme drawing people together in the first place. And one of the most glaringly apparent commonalities lies in the … Read More

Musing on the Relationship Between Word Craft and Fine Art

  “Communication,” an exhibit based on a collaboration between the Writers Alliance of Gainesville (WAG) and the Gainesville Fine Arts Association (GFAA), generated quite a bit of interesting conversation. Authors were either pleased or disappointed by the work created in response to their offerings. Some of the art followed classic, … Read More

Add a Pinch of Humanity to Your Stories, Your Characters, Your Writing …

  Recent feedback to a series of stories I shared on Facebook made me lean back in my chair and have a good mull-over. “I especially enjoy the humanity that comes through your stories….” Oh? I’ve read several commentaries about how over-zealous English professors and critics can imbue a story … Read More

How Bibliographies Benefit All Writers

I’ll admit it, I spend a lot of time compiling bibliographies. For me, there’s something inherently satisfying about seeing a list of references all lined up, like bunches of beautiful flowers waiting to be picked. Research, for both fiction and nonfiction, requires bibliographies. To recreate past worlds, as in historical … Read More

Do You Dare? Writing about Still-Living People in Your Memoir

In the case of your memoir, only you can know for sure what’s apt and what’s not. Memoirist Mary Karr, celebrated for her gritty memoir, The Liars’ Club, quoted Jerry Stahl’s comment from his memoir, Permanent Midnight: “If you had to live it, you get to write it.” Yes, you … Read More

Self-Publishing Your Book? How Not to Look Like an Amateur (Part 2)

In the first part of this two-part series, I covered a few of the basics of self-publishing, primarily the more creative aspects. Here I look at some aspects of self-publishing that will help place your book on booksellers’ and libraries’ shelves. LOC Control Numbers: To ensure that your books might … Read More

Self-Publishing Your Book? How Not to Look Like an Amateur (Part 1)

After my experience with the publisher of my first book, Mushroom: A Global History, I decided I wouldn’t go the traditional route again. It wasn’t because the publisher did anything bad. Au contraire. They did an amazing job: high-quality paper, vivid interior colors, excellent editing and fact-checking, proper layout. The … Read More

How to Write a Children’s Book: Some Pointers Learned from Experience!

On January 8, 2023, the Writers Alliance of Gainesville general meeting attracted a large crowd of members and non-members alike Apparently, everyone wants to write a children’s book. Witness best-selling authors John Grisham and Stephen King. Not to disparage these gifted authors’ work, but who can compete with them? It’s … Read More

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

Here’s wishing all of you a happy holiday season! Hogtowne Quill will be back in full force on January 4, with another thought-provoking article. Why not make it your New Year’s resolution today to write an article (or two) in 2023 for Hogtowne Quill?    

Get The Creative Juices Flowing with a New York Midnight Challenge!

  Stuck in the house with nowhere to go, the pandemic should have been a great opportunity for me to get the creative juices flowing and write. That didn’t happen. My writing was as stuck as I was. Cooking shows, game shows, and predictable Hallmark mysteries filled my afternoons. I … Read More

Reasons to Write (Hint: Money is Not the Answer)

I hate writing, I love having written. ~ Dorothy Parker As most writers know, the publishing world is not the place it was as recently as fifteen years ago, a time when an unknown writer like me could earn $600 for a 2000-word piece in a national newspaper. Book publishing, … Read More

Anonymous Internet Research: A How-To Tutorial for Writers

So …you’re writing your novel or short story and you need some detailed information … You’re looking for the best way to hide a body. You want to deactivate a homemade bomb … or you want to build one. You want to slowly poison someone, but you’re not sure if … Read More

So, You Want to Write a Historical Novel? Story? Play? 4 Research Tips to Get You Started

Shakespeare himself could have done a bit of background research while writing his play, Julius Caesar. How’s that? In Act 2, Scene 1 of Julius Caesar, there’s a famous example of an anachronism. Brutus and Cassius discuss a mechanical clock: Brutus: “Peace! Count the clock.” Cassius: “The clock has stricken three.” But guess … Read More

Above and Beyond Kindle Vella: Other Serialization Apps for Writers

Amazon’s KDP has begun an additional way to publish, called Kindle Vella. It’s a way for writers to possibly capture a new audience: those who read on their phones. Phone readers of my acquaintance lean toward the younger side. I also recognize commuters on trains and busses are using the … Read More

The Artist Date: A Crucial Tool for Writers

Over forty-four years ago, Julia Cameron woke up one morning, her marriage to director Martin Scorese in tatters, her head throbbing from yet another night of overindulgence in the grape. Other things happening in her life led her to the realization she needed to do something. That something turned out … Read More

It’s More than the Sale, More than the Book: Authors and their Readers

Please share your stories of serendipitous encounters with readers. Hogtowne Quill will run the occasional article on such inspiring happenings.   Three WAG authors share their stories about connecting with readers   Once upon a few years ago, I attended a book signing event at the library. The author was … Read More

At a Loss for a Word? Above and Beyond the Thesaurus

Beautiful View? How so? You turn the pages of what promised to be a ripping yarn. But “it” happens again. On the very first page, you read “It was a beautiful view.” A few pages later, again, a similar example pops up: “James is a big man, and a bad … Read More

Re-Vision

Writing is more like a sculpture where you remove, you eliminate in order to make the work visible. Even those pages you remove somehow remain. There is a difference between a book of two hundred pages which is the result of an original eight hundred pages. The six hundred pages … Read More

WAG Members Participate in Women Writing for (a) Change Book Festival, Jacksonville

WAG was well represented at the recent Author Showcase and Book Festival on May 14 hosted by the Jacksonville chapter of Women Writing for (a) Change, held at the beautiful historic Jacksonville home of organizer Jennifer Wolfe. Thirty-five authors were joined by Hands-on OCEANS Education team from the Jax Zoo, … Read More

Going to the Woods: A Few Words about Nature Writing

posted in: How To 6

Nature writing involves the combining of the two cultures of humanistic art and technical science into a seamless view of culture and nature interacting. ~ Gary Paul Nabhan, author of Mesquite: An Arboreal Love Affair   Being in nature is one place that truly makes my heart joyful. And provides … Read More

Publishing Your Book on Kindle Vella

posted in: How To, Publishing 3

Remember the good old days when novels were serialized in newspapers and magazines? No? That was probably before your time. Serialization was popular in the nineteenth century but fell out of fashion after the 1930s. Charles Dickens published most of his novels as installments in periodicals before issuing them in … Read More

A Note to Poets

[Editor’s note: The following poem provides poets – and other writers, too – with a few tongue-in-cheek moments of levity. And truth.] The length of your poem might need adjustment …   Once upon a time, poems carried the sum of human knowledge recited ’round the hearth memorized for generations … Read More

Give the Gift that Keeps on Giving: Your Expertise

Five hundred words. Or maybe a thousand. That’s all. The Writers Alliance of Gainesville blog needs YOU to write on topics of your choice, at least those pertaining to any aspect of writing. Share your expertise, your experience, your hard-earned knowledge about writing with your colleagues. Your name might not … Read More

If You Want to Write

Just write! Just do it! That’s what they say. But who are they? I’d need more than ten fingers to count all the names. But for me, one name stands out among those many pundits. And that’s Brenda Ueland. “Who?” you ask. She doesn’t have a website. No Twitter handle. … Read More

Pod Meetings Resume with Zoom

One of the valuable benefits of being a WAG member is the feedback we writers get from our critique pod members. The COVID-19 stay-at-home order seemed to put the kibosh on that until WAG member Ronnie Lovler suggested to members of the POW pod that they try meeting online using … Read More

Minimalism in Tiny Stories

When writing stories of 750 words or fewer, the writer must successfully employ the skills of compression and concision. Compression mandates economy of words, the squeezing together of story line, beginning, middle, end, story arc, number of characters, dialogue and time frame. Tightness in writing and meaningful word choice offer … Read More

Write What You Know

One of the most common pieces of advice for budding writers is to “write what you know.” But what does that actually mean? Does it mean to write about events that have happened in your life? Does it mean that you should only write about subjects which you know? Does … Read More

History of Typewriters

posted in: Writer's Craft 4

Do any of these names sound familiar? Remington, Olivetti, Royal,  Smith Corona… If so, then you’re one of us old folks who learned to keyboard on a manual typewriter. It was a lot more energy-consuming than the fairy-soft touch of electronic keyboards that we all use today. The history of … Read More

A Refresher on Literary Devices

posted in: Writer's Craft 1

Writers use literary devices to enhance a story and better convey an emotion or message. They can be an effective way to make your work more compelling, add depth, or paint a clearer picture. Here are a few interesting literary devices: Anthropomorphism: Lending a human quality or emotion to something … Read More

Not For Me

“Not for me” is the briefest rejection I’ve received from a literary agent, but those three little words say it all. It’s all about fit. Because I lack the technical knowledge and, truth be told, the courage to self-publish, I chose to promote my novel through literary agent representation. I … Read More

The Wheel of Tension

Some years ago, I took an online mystery-writing class. The one helpful takeaway for me was what I’ll call the Wheel of Tension, which moves the plot along. This is not limited to mystery writing; it works for all fiction and non-fiction. The Wheel of Tension is this: A situation … Read More

Consequences in Fiction

posted in: Writer's Craft 2

Imagine a typical conflict in fiction: A wife goes on a shopping spree and spends a large portion of their money and attempts to hide it from her husband. Unfortunately for her, her husband catches her at one of the high-end stores she’s perusing. Unfortunately for him, it’s because he’s … Read More

A Brag on WAG

posted in: WAG Membership 7

As a new officer in the Writers Alliance (WAG) of Gainesville, I’m impressed with the concern of the Alliance Board that WAG members may not be getting the full benefit of their memberships. Attendance at meetings and in pods represents a modest fraction of the full roster of around 190 … Read More

Street Teams

posted in: Marketing 4

I recently volunteered to be on Ran Pyle’s street team. Why? “Street Teams” was the focus at an early December Marketing Coalition meeting. During the discussion led by Skipper Hammond, members were encouraged be on a street team. If I was going to be hawking somebody’s book, I wanted to … Read More

Write What You Know! But . . .

posted in: Writer's Craft 4

As writers we keep learning new things all the time. While the adage “Write what you know” works well for us at the start of a project, what happens when we get out there on the literary minefield where we are uneasy about what comes next? What if we don’t … Read More

What WAG Means to Me

posted in: WAG Membership 3

A few months ago, I was asked to be the next president of the Writers Alliance of Gainesville (WAG). This is not only an honor, but a tremendous responsibility. Why did I accept? Because WAG has done so much for me. I don’t remember how I learned about WAG—probably from … Read More

A Picture Is Worth

posted in: Writer's Craft 1

Michael Straczynski, the creator of the successful television sci-fi series Babylon 5, said he would hear his characters in his head as he worked on a script. While driving around Los Angeles, he heard arguments, complaints, discussions among his characters. The words, he claimed, were not his. He wasn’t creating … Read More

Writing . . . Creating

posted in: Writer's Craft 7

When my daughter was about twelve, she made a profound observation. I was struggling to write a report—couldn’t seem to get the words right, had filled several notebook pages with scratched-out words. “Writing is easy,” my daughter said. “You just put one word after another.” “Not that simple. It has … Read More

How to Find Your Target Audience

posted in: How To, Marketing 11

In a recent LA Times article, “Self-made label is delusional,” Ann Friedman rails against Forbes’ labeling Kylie Jenner of the Kardashian family one of the richest “self-made women.” I agree with Friedman. Jenner was born into money. Not exactly a bootstrapper. Yes, she initiated her own cosmetics business, but think … Read More

Writing the First Chapter

Michelangelo once said:      “Trifles make perfection       but perfection is no trifle.” A few small details can lead to long strides on becoming a better writer. Tried and true tenets—show don’t tell, limit adverbs, use (or don’t use) dialogue tags, active voice not passive voice—are all familiar to most … Read More

Character-Driven Plot

There is a long-running argument concerning character-driven vs. plot-driven writing, where the former is called literary and the latter formulaic. Note which one gets the derogatory label that plot-driven writers abhor. Despite my work being primarily character-driven, I take the position that one cannot thrive without the other. And yet, … Read More

Amour Propre

What does it take to write a book, especially a memoir? I read a couple books on how to write a memoir, and I took Susie Baxter’s course on writing a memoir; but I have no experience on writing anyone else’s memoir. That would seem to be a strange form … Read More

The Writing Life

For more than twenty years, I have been working on manuscripts at the same desk, sitting in front of a picture window overlooking my lovely backyard. Over the years, countless books, magazine articles, brochures, ads, and scientific reports have made their way across my desk. The writing assignments vary from … Read More

As a Rule

Who are these pompous pedants who preach what a writer should and should not do? They forbid one to start with a question. But I already did and I’m glad. And they say don’t begin a sentence with “but” or “and.” But I’m doing both. And I’m even more glad. … Read More

Time Over Words

Writers sometimes ask which is better—tracking words or tracking time. A daily word count can be doable. Or ghastly. Successful authors’ quotas vary greatly.* Ernest Hemingway strove for 500 words a day.  On the other hand, Michael Crichton claimed to whip out 10,000 words at one go. Many articles appear about word … Read More

What is the Oxford Comma? And Who Cares?

What is the Oxford comma? And who cares about it? Writers, for one. Readers, too. The Oxford comma, also called the “serial comma” or “Harvard comma,” is the final comma in a series of words or phrases. It sometimes appears after the second-to-last item—as in “We had sandwiches, chips, and … Read More

Flat and Round Characters in Fiction

E. M. Forster, in his 1927 Aspects of the Novel, applied the terms “flat” and “round” to describe fictional characters (pp. 103-166). Those true to life he considered to be “round,” while “flat” characters served only one purpose in the story. Authors create flat characters to represent a specific idea … Read More

Writers’ Responsibility

Are you a writer? A storyteller? Congratulations. You have an incredible power. And responsibility. Neuroscientists today say that storytelling has given our species an ability more important even than opposable thumbs. Our empathy makes it possible for us to learn from hearing of another’s experience. Someone we care about is hit; we … Read More

Calling All WAG Members! Bacopa Literary Review Contest Submissions

Bacopa Literary Review This year’s Bacopa Literary Review contest submissions will be open until May 31, 2018, with a $250 prize in each of four genres: Short Story, Creative Nonfiction, Poetry, Prose Poetry. Every author published will also receive $25. The $3 submission fee is waived for WAG members’ first submission. We’re looking for … Read More

Discovering Stories on the Back Roads

posted in: How To, Writer's Craft 6

Do you need ideas for stories? Venture out of your comfort zone. Traveling on the back roads, I’ve found a wealth of stories begging to be told. My life changed in August, 1999, on my way home from a family reunion in Arkansas. Interstate 20 was under construction. Everywhere. After … Read More

Can You Hear Me Now?

  Still deep in the editing stage of my memoir, I wonder how much advice to take and what to shrug off. Fortune smiled my way when I decided to become a WAG member in January of 2013. Then smiled even brighter when I immediately connected with a critique pod. … Read More

What is Voice?

posted in: Writer's Craft 3

In writing, voice might be defined as the personality, authenticity, sincerity, energy, texture of the narrative. Voice lifts the story off the page and grabs the reader. Voice consists of the sum of the author’s conscious and unconscious thoughts, perspectives, attitudes and experiential wisdom. It is the skillful way the … Read More

Beta Readers Needed

One of WAG’s first undertakings was to form critique pods, groups of five or six writers who could meet regularly to read each other’s work and give feedback. Today, we have thirteen pods! One for children’s literature, one for poetry, one mixed genre, five fiction (primarily novels), and five nonfiction … Read More

The Ultimate Deadline

I notice more and more—how shall I put it?—dead people have pre-written their own obituaries. This may be a morbid subject for some, but when you reach a certain age, you know what is coming and you recognize it could be any time. Any minute, really. So why not write … Read More

Upload Your E-Book to Smashwords

  Hurray! You finally finished your book! You uploaded it to Createspace, maybe to Kindle, and you want to get it out to as many places as possible. How about putting it on Smashwords? What is that? According to smashwords.com: “Smashwords is the world’s largest distributor of indie eBooks. We … Read More

An Energizer

posted in: Writer's Craft 8

I was stuck. I needed something to energize my writing practice. Maybe I needed a review of the basics. Some strategies for marketing. Maybe meet a publisher or agent. Talk with others who write in my genre. At the Florida Writers Association’s conference in Altamonte Springs, October 19–21, I experienced … Read More

Debut of Bacopa 2017

posted in: Writer's Craft 1

Join us for the November 5 WAG meeting and celebration of Bacopa Literary Review 2017, with readings from prize-winners and by local contributors. The intersection of arts and political activism are two fields defined by a shared focus of creating engagement that shifts boundaries, changes relationships and creates new paradigms … Read More

Ever felt like hiding behind a mask?

posted in: Poetry 1

Do it with prose poetry. When my friend, Clark, sent me his pre-MFA collection of poems, I flipped through the book and flipped again, backing up, sitting down, reading in depth. Clark had written a set of lined poems that torched my imagination. In his letter to me, he said: … Read More

What $36 Gets You!

posted in: WAG Membership 1

A prospective member approached me at one of our monthly meetings. “Are dues $36 a month? Or a year?” “A year,” I told her. At only $3 a month, she must have thought she was getting quite a bargain. She was! When WAG was founded in 2009, the dues were … Read More

4 Steps to Better Writing Habits

posted in: Writer's Craft 2

. . . using behavioral insights. Writing is a set of behaviors, and all behaviors are affected by identifiable factors. By appropriately altering selected factors, we can improve our writing habits. As a behavioral scientist, I will list below ideas to improve your writing habits. Behavior is Everything We Do. … Read More

Point of View

When I first started writing, I thought point of view meant my opinion of something. After I posted my first story on a writing website, I was quickly enlightened. A critiquer told me I jumped around in my point of view. Point of view? What was that? With a Google … Read More

What’s Coming Up

At the halfway point of 2017, WAG is making headway toward goals set in January. Our first-ever Marketing Workshop is drawing near — August 5 at St Leo University. Among the many topics to be covered are book promotion, creating your web page, effective query letters, and navigating through social … Read More

Writers Today Must Also Be Marketers

posted in: Marketing 8

“But we just want to write!” we wail. We writers dream of being left alone with our imagination. We desire peace and quiet in which to create our literary art, our expressions of hope, loss, joy and sorrow. We want to write our stories. Problem is, if we want people to … Read More

English Major Not Required

In an effective critique pod, every person in the small group comments on the other members’ work. That can seem overwhelming to a new writer. Even experienced journalists, I’ve learned to my amazement, can feel unqualified to criticize someone else’s writing, but an English major isn’t required. WAG’s pods are … Read More

Creativity and the Art of Writing

With glee, you crack the spine of your brand new book. You meet a poor, unsuspecting lass going about her daily business. The next thing you know, she is confronted with a challenge far above that which she thinks she can handle. She runs away, but because of circumstances beyond … Read More

WAG 2017

It’s another year. Time for resolutions . . . lose weight, make this year better than last, earn more money, look for that perfect mate (if you don’t have one already, and if you do, remember Valentine’s Day is fast approaching), or improve upon your existing relationship. These are but … Read More

Writer Interview: Erinn L. Kemper

Horror writer Erinn L. Kemper grew up in an isolated mill town on coastal British Columbia, Canada. From there she moved to Victoria, BC, to study philosophy at university. Over the years she’s worked as an eye glasses repair person, fish farmer, cabinet maker, parks department laborer, small museum staff, book … Read More

Bacopa Literary Review is Flourishing

posted in: WAG Membership 0

If you’ve wondered about the name of WAG’s literary journal, the Bacopa is a genus of aquatic plants, annuals and perennials that grow worldwide in tropical/sub-tropical areas, including north central Florida. Some have stems low to the ground; others grow tall; blossom colors range from white to blue or even … Read More

The Playful Acrostic

posted in: Writer's Craft 0

An acrostic poem is defined as a poem in which the first or last letter of each line when read vertically will spell out a word, phrase, or name. Take a look at the following poem. What secret does it hide? A Boat Beneath a Sunny Sky by Lewis Carroll … Read More

5 Ways to Power Past Writer’s Block

posted in: How To 0

If you’re a writer facing down writer’s block, few things are scarier than staring at a blank Word file evocatively titled “Document1.” You sit, hands poised on (or somewhere near) your keyboard, wondering why your muse has gone AWOL while picturing every other writer acquaintance of yours typing away, creative … Read More

Cinematic Writing: The Power of Varying Distance

Let’s cast our writing in cinematic terms. The reader’s “mind’s eye” is the screen. Your words are the camera, defining scenes, controlling distance from the subject, focus, lighting, and angles. I’ll address two “camera” concepts: I. Physical Distance and II. Emotional Distance. Then I’ll close with III. A Combination Example. … Read More

Achieving Our Goals

The Writers Alliance of Gainesville has grown from a handful of people to an alliance of more than 160 members. WAG was founded in early 2009 after Wendy Thornton and the late Kal Rosenberg put their heads together and decided Gainesville needed an organization of writers who would promote, encourage, … Read More

Writing Flash Nonfiction

posted in: Writer's Craft 1

Flash nonfiction brings into question the truth of a story, its creative distortion, and the writing down to the best of one’s memory and ability the facts of a story. Just as each witness to a crime remembers the event with varying perspectives, so do we remember or report a … Read More

How Can I Help a Writer?

posted in: How To 5

The first time a friend asked me what she could do to support me in my writing, my answer was incoherent. I was so surprised, I stood there with my mouth hanging open, struggling to process what the question meant. Since that day—many years ago—I’ve come up with a better … Read More

Emotional Resonance: Enneagram Style Two

posted in: Writer's Craft 0

Editor’s Note: This is the third in a series of posts by blogger Mary Bast on Deepening Character Descriptions. While searching for characters that exemplify the Helper personality (Enneagram Style Two), I realized even talented writers don’t always fully explore the motivations of their characters, however skillful their descriptions. As … Read More

Make Time for Writing

posted in: How To 1

If you ask an amateur writer, “Why aren’t you writing?” the most common excuse is “I want to write, but I just can’t find the time!” This is the bottom line: You will never find time to write. You have to make time. According to author Kathleen McCleary in a … Read More

Ready, Set, Write: NaNoWriMo Preparation

posted in: NaNoWriMo 1

When you first start the program known as NaNoWriMo, you may think 30 days is a long time. You may think writing 50,000 words in that amount of time is doable. After all, that’s only 1,666.667 words per day. Maybe you’re already writing 2,000 words per day now. Good for you, … Read More

What is Lyric Essay? A Brief Outline

posted in: Writer's Craft 1

Writing the lyric essay offers the author a frolic in the pool of memoir, biography, poetry and personal essay mixed with a sprinkling of experimental. Sound confusing? It can be. I am currently learning to write lyric essay and often trip over my fiction background in presenting my “truth” with … Read More

Five Lessons on Writing

posted in: Writer's Craft 1

I’m one of those writers whose bio could start out like this: “Robin Ingle has been writing since she could hold a pencil.” I’ve put in the necessary learning to satisfy the recently-debunked ten-thousand-hour rule. Now that I’ve nearly completed a novel, I’d like to share a few things that … Read More

Promoting Your Book

posted in: Marketing 2

For most writers, the actual writing part of developing a manuscript – outlining, first draft, re-writing and critiquing – is the fun and creative part of telling stories. But storytellers need audiences, need receptive listeners, and publishing venues, and that’s where promoting your book becomes a necessity. So you must … Read More

Overcome Your Stage Fright

posted in: Marketing 1

Are you the rare person who’s never nervous when giving a book talk? If so, be grateful. Most people have some version of performance anxiety when promoting their books. If you’re one of those, take comfort in knowing you’re not alone and you can overcome your stage fright. Nicole Kidman has … Read More

Honest Travel Writing: Tell It Like It Is?

posted in: Writer's Craft 1

It is easy to be a travel writer, for these days there are thousands of outlets for your message and plenty of helpful web sites. In truth however, there are very few good travel writers, because there are very few outlets for honest travel writing. Travel writing is not different … Read More

How to Start A Writer’s Blog

posted in: How To 0

So you want to start a writer’s blog. I hear this from a lot of writers who have yet to take the leap into blogging. They want to know: Can they really set up a blog by themselves with no technical training? I tell them to relax. You don’t have … Read More

Catch Yourself If You Can

posted in: Legal Issues 0

Some years ago, the literary world was shocked when a recipient of the annual Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, Brad Vice, was accused of plagiarizing in his winning collection, The Bear Bryant Funeral Train. The story of Vice’s rise and fall, which echoes the life of charming con artist … Read More

How to Avoid Writing

I’m procrastinating. Again. I should be writing. I’m not. I’m standing in front of the refrigerator looking for something to eat even though I’m not really hungry. I’ll head back to the computer and play a game or two of solitaire. It’s much easier than staring at the blank Word … Read More

5 Ways to Bounce Back from Rejection

posted in: How To 2

If you’re a writer, you’ve had this experience: You get an e-mail from a journal or publisher you really, really thought was just the right match for your work. With trembling fingers, you click the message open – and find something that reads like this: “Dear Felicia, Thank you for … Read More

What happens to my dues?

On February 10, 2013, I went to my first Writers Alliance of Gainesville presentation at the Millhopper Library. I know this because, like many of you, I write a blog — actually, a couple. This is what I wrote in one on February 12, 2013. “The Writers’ Group meeting on … Read More

How Writing Saved My Life

“Writing can save your life,” said Samantha Shad, screenwriter, attorney, teacher, in a recent presentation at a Florida Writers Association mini-conference. For her, writing became a way to deal with a serious ethical dilemma she faced in her early legal career. This thing nagged at her until she finally was … Read More

You Are Entitled

When WAG webmaster Robin Ingle “suggested” that I, as WAG President, write one of the first blog posts, I hesitated. But then I shouted, “Okay! Okay! Okay! I’ll do it!” and promised never to say a word about the arm twisting. True to my word, I have not opened my … Read More

Welcome!

posted in: WAG Membership 2

Welcome to the new, improved website of the Writers Alliance of Gainesville! I’m so pleased that you have navigated to our site, and I want you to feel at home. A redesign of WAG’s website was Susie Baxter’s top priority when she became our new president in January 2015. “The … Read More