“The Top Ten Things I’ve Learned Teaching Fiction” + a session on Narrative Voice.
Author: elginwritersguild@outlook.com
The Poet’s Guide to Word-Watching
by Julie Berry (for Poetry Month) When an unfamiliar word flies up and startles you, look for identifying features, try to glimpse its secondaries, comprehend its bone structure, its under-tail coverts. To know it better is to love it more. You may know the song a word sings but listen as if you’re hearing it…
Writing from the Heart of the Story
By Peter Bloch-Hansen Recently I had opportunity to talk about ‘writing from the heart’ of the story. What is the heart of the story? It’s what you want the reader to feel and understand that they didn’t, before reading it. In other words, it’s what your story, like cabbage leaves, boils down to. So what…
Opening Lines
By Elgin Writers Guild Vice President, James John Miller The opening lines of a story have the power to spellbind the reader, or turn themoff altogether. Editors in publishing houses only read the first pages of a manuscript(one editor admitted to only reading the first eight lines) before deciding whether toaccept the work or reject…
Silencing Your Inner Editor
By Elgin Writers Guild Fiction Critique Group Moderator Tara Walker You open a new document and poise your fingers over the keyboard. You’re going to write a novel, and it’s going to be great! But first, you need to think of the perfect opening line. You write a couple of words . . . but…
Book of short stories and poems now on sale
A version of this story first appeared in Hometown St. Thomas and is reprinted with permission. This autumn, Elgin Writers Guild marked a significant milestone with the release of Railway CityWrites – Stories and Poems from the Elgin Writers Guild, a 150-page anthology featuring shortstories and poems from its talented members. The Fiction Critique Group…
On Being a Writer
By Elgin Writers Guild Member Peter Bloch-Hansen I wrote my first novel in Grade 8, a colossal failure, but here I am! Being a writer is just that –being the thing. You don’t need anyone to tell you you’re a writer. You don’t need anyone’s permission. You don’t need a certificate. You don’t need anyone’s…
The Amazing Power of Little Squiggles
By Elgin Writers Guild Vice-President James Miller Words are incredible. These squiggles have the ability to transport you to another world,drive you to depths of despair, or elevate you to the highest point of elation. As writers, amateuror otherwise, we try to wrangle words into sentences that do just that: move the reader. It is…
Book Review: “The Bingo Hall Detectives” By Jonathan Whitelaw
Reviewed by Elgin Writers Guild Member Wendy Tippin As a young senior and a voracious reader of cozy mysteries, I have noticed a rejuvenation of atrend in cozies that have a cast of senior citizen sleuths much like in the days of Agatha Christie’s MissMarple. Perhaps you are familiar with Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club…