 Red Room Writer Profile
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Elizabeth Stark's Blog
November 5, 2009
- I ran a coaching call this morning made up of a group of writers most of whom had finished or were nearly finishing a first book—and by finish I mean putting on the final touches, NOT completing a rough draft. They asked questions and shared techniques, and each approach that had worked for someone sounded wise and wonderful. One said that he wrote slowly, that it took him a long time each day ...
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October 9, 2009
- I’ve had a couple of recent queries about first person v. third person. Maybe I’ll tackle them in my blog. I’d bloody well do something in my blog if I’m to hold up my head as a content creator. And what, after all, was a writer if not the ur-content creator? She’d had a couple of recent queries about first person v. third person. Maybe she would tackle them in her blog. She’d ...
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September 16, 2009
- I’ve been part of an interesting conversation about plot in literature lately. By “part” I mean that through Tweeted and emailed links to blogs and articles, a conversation has made itself available me as witness, commenter and now commentator. First, Lev Grossman wrote a piece, “Good Books Don’t Have to Be Hard” for the Wall Street Journal. His subtitle: “A novelist on the pleasure ...
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August 14, 2009
- The following is the letter I wrote to the brave group of folks who started–and yes, finished–books with me last fall. I thought it might be useful to anyone gearing up to write a book. If you want to join my group, check it out HERE. Dear Book Writers,Why a Frame? Why are we starting with plot (and character)?It has been my experience that the hardest thing to go back and put into a novel ...
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August 1, 2009
- Everything is changing. This much we know. People lament or exalt the Kimble, perhaps via Facebook or a Tweet. Yes, it’s a different world than the one where your morning newspaper (what’s that?) landed with a thump on your doorstep and you put a thumb between the pages of your book to call out to your kid to bring it in the house. These days you might be reading a book at Google while your ...
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July 13, 2009
- I've been recommending this link to a number of my clients who are getting ready to go in search of an agent, and I thought I'd post it for the rest of you who might be heading that direction. Jamie Ford, in case you haven't heard of him (and apparently there are folks who haven't heard of Kafka, so Jamie doesn't need to feel bad and I'm sure he doesn't) is a best-selling ...
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June 16, 2009
- Every month, I host a free coaching call for writers on the third Thursday of the month. This week, on June 18, the call, from 5 - 6 p.m. PST, will look at how to make scenes pop. In addition, I'll respond to any questions you have. Stuck? Struggling? Need some help with daily momentum, mastery of craft or marketing your book? Let's talk. To register for the call (and get the phone number and ...
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April 6, 2009
- Word of Mouth Bay Area TOUR EVENTS April 16 Orinda Books On Story and Story Telling Jessica Barksdale Inclan Frances Dinkelspiel Susan Freinkel Michelle Richmond Brenda Webster April 26 Clayton Books Author Festival Jessica Barksdale Inclan Catherine Brady Maria Espinosa May 7 Bookshop West Portal MC: Elizabeth Stark & Joan Gelfand Catherine Brady Dana Fredsti and Cynthia ...
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April 4, 2009
- What makes a blog both exciting and dangerous is the immediacy of the format. Confessions, passions and urges are typed onto a little box on a screen, one rectangular button with the corners worn off is clicked with a tap of a key, and those confessions become public. I’m a person with three novel manuscripts waiting perfection. I’m not impulsive about getting my work out before the ...
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April 1, 2009
- I am excited to announce the WOMBA tour! Word of Mouth Bay Area, an eclectic cadre of local women authors, will be kicking off the very first WOMBA book tour on Thursday, April 16 at Orinda Books at 7 p.m. The tour, Face Books: Social Networking in Real Time, is intended both to bring together Bay Area writers and readers, and to take social networking off the computer and back into the ...
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March 22, 2009
- I’ve had an epiphany of sorts lately, or at least a turn-about in my perspective that I would describe as radical. In short, I’ve embraced the effect of market forces on the arts, and on writing in particular. Heretofore, I’d stubbornly held onto the idea that writers were creating a private vision, nurturing a subtle relationship with an intimate muse. More to the point, I disparaged the ...
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March 17, 2009
- The New York Times published an article about how sales of books are up in France and Europe in general. Two favorite quotes: “It’s a happy message,” said André Breedt, research and development analyst at Nielsen BookScan, which tracks book sales. “People have been reading and they will keep reading, no matter what happens.” “Books are a very cheap treat,” said Helen Fraser, ...
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March 11, 2009
- For a long time, I distained the people who focused on getting published. When I was in graduate school, great writers came to talk to us and teach us: Denis Johnson, Ethan Canin, Francine Prose, A. M. Holmes, Jamaica Kincaid, Lucille Clifton, to name a few. (Wow, name-dropping is fun!) Inevitably, the questions that came would be peppered with concern about publishing. I always wanted to know ...
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March 4, 2009
- The title of this blog is the title of a recent Guardian article to which I, chuckling and sighing send you. I work with writers, I am a writer, I come from writers and I am married to a writer. I have often said that being published is a lot like not being published. This puzzles people who, as I once did, wander into bookstores, picking up enticing books, reading the cover flap, gazing at the ...
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February 25, 2009
- The title of this post is a quote from a conversation with a wonderful coach named Sharon Sayler (check out her radio show), and I think it’s the perfect description of what writing demands of us. Someone was saying to me this week that it’s not the writing she minds, but the voice in her head that accompanies the writing. The voice that says, “This is not good enough; this is terrible.” ...
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