Sometimes we’re tempted to explain to our readers how our characters feel. It’s as though we don’t trust the power of our own writing. Even when our scene is inherently frightful – our character is being held up at gunpoint let’s say – we might fall back on something like, David shook with terror….
Author Archives: Nanci Panuccio
Why Poets Often Make the Best Prose Writers and What We Can Learn From Them
Ever notice how poets write some of the most powerful fiction and non-fiction out there? Think of Margaret Atwood, Janet Frame, Elizabeth Bishop, and Victoria Redel, just to name a few. Among the things that make these authors masters of the prose form is their reverence for how individual words sound. They understand that vowel…
Why Time Management Doesn’t Work for Writers Like Me and What I Finally Did About It
I’ll admit. There was a period in my life when I didn’t sympathize with anyone who moaned about a lack of time to write. Life was radically different for me back then. I lived alone in a streamside apartment overlooking Mount Tremper. With vast savannahs of time spread out before me, I had a full-fledged…
Building Character by Raising the Stakes
Happiness might be great in real life. But it’s fatal in fiction. Few things numb readers more than a character surrounded by birdsong and puppies, who isn’t risking something deeply important. There’s no payoff when everything works out all hunky dory. Or when the outcome is as simple as a character getting what he…
How the Right Adjective Can Breathe Life into Your Writing
If you’ve been writing long enough, you’ve probably come across advice that goes something like this: Be vigilant about your use of adjectives. Two adjectives to a single noun are usually too many, and even one is risky. Sound advice, surely. Her weak body shook as the salty sweat trickled down her tremulous, frightened face….
A Few Things I’ve Learned About Revision That I Wish I’d Known Sooner
I used to dread revision. The more I’d try to fix my story, the more lost and frustrated I’d become. After dozens of rewrites, convinced my story was an irreparable mess, I’d shove my story into the drawer and move onto the next new draft. Which would lead to more revision. More confusion and frustration….
5 Ways to Become Your Own Muse
Many of us wait for inspiration to give us creative momentum. It sometimes feels as though inspiration is a mysterious, mercurial force — sometimes it shows up, sometimes it doesn’t. But what if we could summon inspiration at will? If each time we sat down to write, we could reach that magic zone where the…
How to Survive Negative Feedback On Your Story
The author Ron Carlson once joked that he wanted to hear only three things when his peers gave him feedback: I love you for writing this. This is the best thing I’ve ever read. If you don’t go on writing, I’ll die. We all want that validation that comes from hearing how great our writing…
Acceptance and Rejection: What You Need to Know About Both
Whenever we send our work out for publication, acceptance and rejection are both part of the deal. In this video we’re going to talk about how to manage both. On the publishing side, we’ll talk about the different rights magazines might purchase for your story, and what it all means. We’ll also talk about the…
How to Create a Submission Log
As we add more stories and magazines to our submission funnel, tracking it all becomes critical. But if you’re anything like me, organizing submissions isn’t exactly your strong point. When I first started submitting my work, I had information scattered everywhere. We’re talking multitudes of Word files, folders within folders, response letters in drawers. A…