It’s time to rewind through some of the best blog posts of the week related to writing, books, creativity – and sometimes just some other fun but random stuff. Each Friday I link to my favorite posts of the week so you have another chance to catch an interesting post you might have missed or discover a new blogger.

In case you missed a post or want to re-read the whole series again, here are the links to all of the post from the 13 Ways of Looking at the Novel  series of posts on the My Story Writer blog this month.

The second winner for the giveway of My Story Writer writing software is...

Over the past four weeks, I’ve shared with you the highlights of each chapter of 13 Ways of Looking at the Novel by Jane Smiley. It’s a book that came into my life when I needed it and has become an invaluable resource to me in both my writing and my reading of novels.

We’ve all heard (and I certainly appreciate) Anne Lamott’s advice about just going ahead and writing a “shitty rough draft.” Jane Smiley feels about the same when it comes to the first draft, but she puts a different spin on it.

It begins with words and then you move up through the pyramid of skills it takes to write a novel. Now it’s time to focus on the meat of it all: the writing of your novel.

It’s time to rewind through some of the best blog posts of the week related to writing, books, creativity – and sometimes just some other fun but random stuff. Each Friday I link to my favorite posts of the week so you have another chance to catch an interesting post you might have missed or discover a new blogger.

If only it were simply a matter of words and adding one word to the next to the next, anyone could write a novel. Yesterday, we started with obscure beginnings. Today I’m covering what Jane Smiley had to say about taking those words and building them up into novel of your own.

The first winner for the giveway of My Story Writer writing software is...

I couldn’t wait for the two chapters in Jane Smiley’s 13 Ways of Looking at the Novel that changed from the focus of the already-written novel to the one inside you, the one you want to write. The next four posts are dedicated to just that: A Novel of Your Own. And we’ll begin with Beginnings.

There is no such thing as a single representative novel, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that all novels are related to other forms of discourse and communication.

In this chapter of 13 Ways of Looking at the Novel, Jane Smiley writes about the history of the novel. Not how the novel came to be  (check out the Origins post from last week for that), but the evolution of the novel over time.

I’m posting a special edition of the weekly Rerun post today which focuses on all the great information that’s been making the rounds out there about NaNoWriMo. The start of the National Novel Writing Month is just two weeks away and there are some fantastic resources for those writers who are getting ready to write their novel in a month – and for the writers being inspired by all this writing encouragement and excitement.

It’s time to rewind through some of the best blog posts of the week related to writing, books, creativity – and sometimes just some other fun but random stuff. Each Friday I link to my favorite posts of the week so you have another chance to catch an interesting post you might have missed or discover a new blogger.

The artistry of the novel is far easier for me to approach than morality. Take almost any term from the visual arts: truth, beauty, technique, abstract, form, style, balance. They can also be applied to the novel. 

The need to even consider the morality of the novel surprised me at first, but it needs to be a consideration when you think about where the novel has come from – and even where it stands today.

Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Can you think of a better way to describe a novel?

All of the writing world is a buzz with NaNoWriMo. Kudos to all those who have signed up. What I’m finding is that the excitement is contagious – even for those who aren’t participating this year. So in honor of all prep work that goes into creating a novel before you even start writing – whether you’re working on a novel for NaNoWriMo or not – we’re giving away 2 copies of My Story Writer.

Last week we started by looking at what a novel is then who the novelist is. Today we ask: Where did the novel come from?

It’s time to rewind through some of the best blog posts of the week related to writing, books, creativity – and sometimes just some other fun but random stuff. Each Friday I link to my favorite posts of the week so you have another chance to catch an interesting post you might have missed or discover a new blogger.

 The writer — as therapist, scientist, therorist, experiencer, persona and reader.

What is a novel? Is a novel simple? Or is it complex?

I have a confession: I hate reading introductions. I understand their purpose but I like to get into a book – novel or nonfiction – and I don’t like wasting my time having the author telling me why I should care enough to read the rest of their book.

To start our month of looking at the novel, you need to know the ways in which Jane Smiley looks at the novel in her book. She read 100 novels (check out the list at www.smiley100.com) over three years and the entire second half of 13 Ways of Looking at the Novel is devoted to her insights into each of those 100 novels.

It’s time to rewind through some of the best blog posts of the week related to writing, books, creativity – and sometimes just some other fun but random stuff. Each Friday I link to my favorite posts of the week so you have another chance to catch an interesting post you might have missed or discover a new blogger.