Photo caption: The face of a man who can’t come up with a good novel title. Have you ever heard about those parents who don’t name a child when he or she is born, delaying the choice for several days? It’s their legal right to do so. But the failure to name a baby seems, […]
Name Your Baby by Andromeda Romano-Lax Read More »
Are you tired of Twitter? Allergic to TikTok? Resistant to making Instagram reels? For the last six months, I was. Having enjoyed learning some new social media skills in 2021—ah, those months when making reels was actually fun!—my interest began to fade in late 2022, especially as the algorithms kept changing. Then Elon Musk bought
I take that phrase from a newsletter I read this week by learning expert Scott Young. Reviewing The Handbook of Creativity by Robert Sternberg, Young synthesizes this takeaway: Creativity is a by-product of acquired expertise and a willingness to take intellectual risks. Lately I’ve been struggling to decide what my next novel will be. Over
Do You Swing for the Fences in Your Writing Projects? by Andromeda Romano-Lax Read More »
One area where I believe it would be unwise to rely solely on AI-generated text is in the field of creative writing, particularly in the writing of novels. Writing a novel is a complex and nuanced process that requires not only the ability to produce coherent text but also a deep understanding of human emotions,
I’m picky about war novels and movies (don’t even get me started about sentimental or manipulative Holocaust stories). But when I watched All Quiet on the Western Front last week, I was emotionally moved and intellectually gratified. After the final credits rolled, I wasn’t ready to let the movie go—which is exactly what director Edward
What Snarky Oscar-Season Reviews Can Teach a Writer by Andromeda Romano-Lax Read More »
If you’re like me, you’ve had an inbox stuffed in recent days by newsletters about people’s resolutions or theme words for the year, and following that, by a storm tide of articles claiming that resolutions are nonsense. Trust me, this post will not be (only) about writing resolutions. But first, can I vent some mild,
Resolve: To Master Your Own Best Writing Practices by Andromeda Romano-Lax Read More »
Alaska has a new anthology to enjoy this winter: Wheels on Ice, edited by Jessica Cherry and the late Frank Soos. The story behind this publication is bittersweet, given that Soos, a former Alaska Writer Laureate, long-time teacher and 49 Writers board member, died in a solo cycling accident before the book could be completed.
This is an edited version of a blog post that ran previously on 49 Writers. “If you’re going to live your life based on delusions, and you are, because we all do, then why not at least select a delusion that is helpful? Allow me to suggest this one. The work wants to be made
Ideas That Want to Be Written by Andromeda Romano-Lax Read More »
This week I had a phone meeting about a writing project that has extremely long odds. The meeting itself was a blast. After the call ended, I kept checking in with my feelings, trying to imagine the disappointment I’d feel if the project fizzled. But no matter how I pressed and pinched, seeking anticipatory emotional
This week, I completed a 9-day DIY at-home writing retreat. My husband was out of town visiting a hospitalized family member, which gave me lots of time and space for the kind of purposefully unbalanced work marathon I’ve always needed, a few times per book. I didn’t talk to myself out loud, but I did
