Do characters need to be likable? This is an age-old question that frequently comes up in fiction writing. Does your narrator or main character need to be likeable? If he or she is not likeable, will readers turn away from your story, or at best find it less appealing than they otherwise might? The short …
Guest Blogger Nancy Lord | Do Characters Need to be Likable? Read More »
This is the final post from our December guest blogger Meagan Macvie. 49 Writers was pleased to sponsor Meagan’s southcentral Alaska book tour this month. I was nearly forty when I got serious about writing creatively, and once committed, I did so with a fierce urgency. I left full-time employment, joined writing groups, attended conferences, …
Guest Blogger Meagan Macvie | Publishing (and Learning) with Ooligan Press Read More »
The first time I visited New York City, people asked me (after I revealed I was from Alaska) if I’d ever lived in an igloo. The truth disappointed them. I’d never even seen a real house made of ice. An igloo would’ve been much more exciting than our unremarkable middle-class house on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula. …
Guest Blogger Meagan Macvie | A Certain Necessary Faith Read More »
There are so many reasons I chose to quit my full-time job, start writing fiction, earn my MFA, and complete a novel. In part, I was frustrated by inequalities I observed in the world and angry about how helpless I felt to change them. I wanted to talk about racism and sexism, ask questions, challenge …
Guest Blogger Meagan Macvie | Wading Into Deeper Water Read More »
I was a teen in 1990s Soldotna, Alaska—the setting for my debut novel—so people often ask me if The Ocean in My Ears is a thinly disguised memoir. The short answer is no. Sure, I was probably every bit as frustrating, angsty, and confused as Meri, my teen protagonist. She attends a high school that …
Guest Blogger Meagan Macvie | The Fabricated Truth Read More »
Sure, language always changes. And, the fiction writer—the poet and essayist, too—needs time to process.
Thanksgiving’s just two days away. The calendar will flick that domino into the year’s remaining days, triggering the ol’ chain reaction. It would be easy to let time slip right by till the New Year ball drops. Don’t let it. On the cusp of the holidaze, I’m chiming in with a friendly reminder to take …
One thing that can be easily said about writing—there’s no shortage of resources to help writers hone their craft. In general, that’s a good thing. But this abundance also adds to confusion as writers try out different rules and formulae, determining in one way or another that there are “have-tos” involved in this enterprise. There’s …
It’s a crazy hypothetical, but let’s say you could only give one piece of writing advice, and the advice had to be expressed in a single sentence. Based on where we are along our trajectories as writers, each of us would choose differently. In large part because of the developmental editing assistance I render, my …
Word went out via email a while back to those on our mailing list announcing the exciting news that Louise Erdrich will be our guest instructor this year at our 8th Annual Tutka Bay Writers Retreat. We’re awfully excited that she’s coming and have heard—and seen, as reflected in the high number of applications coming …
Jeremy Pataky | Louise Erdrich Coming to Tutka Bay Read More »
