I Should Be Writing » tough love

Tough Love chapter excerpt

Mur Lafferty — Wed, 18 May 2011 14:16:42 +0000

As I promised, I’ll be back to working on an ebook based on I Should Be Writing. Premium subscribers will get the ebook for free. I’ll be posting excerpts here as I work on it. Today I got some work done on the rough draft of the Tough Love chapter.

I have built this [...]

Truth Hurts

Mur Lafferty — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 17:44:53 +0000

Steven Gould posted this on Twitter and made me laugh and cry AT THE SAME TIME.

The myth of tomorrow

Mur Lafferty — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 14:07:47 +0000

I just got an email from a listener who is telling me how much ISBW has helped him. (I love these, they really help keep me going.) But he had one quote that was just amazing:

I would talk about tomorrow but it was a far off concept more than a reality.

And that really [...]

NaNoWriMo Reality Check

Mur Lafferty — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:04:49 +0000

I follow a lot of agents on twitter, and apparently many of them look forward to December with trepidation. That’s when “novels” that are 50K or so, rough, unedited, and sloppy, hit their desks.

I find this unbelievable. Not that the agents dread it, and not that it happens, but that so little common sense [...]

More tough love – get a workshop

Mur Lafferty — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 22:21:18 +0000

Because this is a blog all about support, I will spin this positively.

You need a writer’s group. You need a workshop.

Just that word, “workshop,” has the feeling of transition to it. You don’t take a piece of wood and smile and say it’s a chair. No, you take it to a workshop and [...]

Media

Mur Lafferty — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 12:23:17 +0000

I was a child of the television. Cartoons, Brady Bunch reruns, Family Feud (I so wanted to be on that show but the biggest thing holding me back – besides, you know, the rest of my family being on board – was creepy-ass Richard Dawson insisting on kissing all the females.), Tic Tak Dough, Smurfs, [...]

This blog available for Kindle – and a secret

Mur Lafferty — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 15:40:17 +0000

As there’s a lot more regular content on this blog now, I’ve decided to publish it via the Kindle platform. If you want writing prompts delivered to your Kindle wherever you go, regardless of connection, subscribe for $1.99 a month!

And if you’re not a Kindle owner or don’t want to subscribe for [...]

The “job” of writing

Mur Lafferty — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 00:44:08 +0000

This blog post is for the people who are serious about making writing your career, about selling your books and stories. If you’re at the stage of trying to get (back) into putting words on paper, then ignore it. Bookmark it and read it in a year.

It’s not enough to write.

And I [...]

Are you ready for some tough love?

Mur Lafferty — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 15:23:19 +0000

I recently saw something about an author whose “dreams were destroyed” because she couldn’t get her book published. And it annoyed me. So I wanted to post something. You may not want to hear it. But Lordy, it needs to be said.

Your current book [...]