When we talk about writing at a Finishing School class, we have questions about how to work. Does your practicing make you succeed, or do you rely on talent? We study the way our breaks turn into procrastination. Every author is curious about what works better: to write daily in small chunks, or produce in […]

Go for the big stuff first. A magic weekend, or a writing retreat, can get a good revision underway. Agent Kate McKean wrote a summary of how to approach a big project like a book revision. Agent Kate McKean suggests several steps. Here's the high points. First, reread your work in full. It takes a […]

We lie about our writing. Most of us do, with the best intentions, to make up the stories about how much we're working on our books. It becomes a story that a writer tells when they say “I'm working on my novel.” If you're working on a book, and writing too little, it's time to […]