When I wrote corporate technical and user manuals, I never found myself staring at a blank page, waiting for inspiration. I wasn’t concerned about word count and never suffered writer’s block. After receiving the specs from programmers and engineers, I knew what I needed to write about. The beauty of compiling user and tech manuals…
Author: Ann Gordon
The Five-Year Song
While scrolling through Twitter a couple of years ago, I stopped to read an interesting post by an Australian songwriter. He called himself SpaceMarch, and at the time he had 252,000 Twitter followers (nice). Other than working with words, I didn’t know how much I’d have in common with a guy who writes lyrics for…
Our Critique Group System
For thirteen years our at-large writing chapter has held regular critique and review sessions. Since most of the chapter’s members live a good distance from each other, our critique sessions are held online. By popular vote, we have elected to use email to share our submissions with the assigned participants in our critique session group….
No One Does That Anymore
Despite the fact that my mother taught me how to type when I was quite young, to this day I still compose fiction stories by hand, preferably with a soft lead pencil or fountain pen. These instruments glide across numerous pages without causing hand cramps. At write ins, I’ve watched fellow writers typing away on…
The Move from Self-Published to Traditionally Published
Like most writers, I’ve heard and read a lot about self-publishing, with most articles and stories advising that it’s nice to get your name in print, but you’ll need to keep your day job. Granted, some self-published books sell few copies beyond the author’s friends and relatives, yet some of them do well enough, including…