#amwriting Archives

#amwriting #fiction Character development equality female characters feminism video poetry woman president

Strong Female Characters and America’s First Woman Nominated for President

By Rachel Dacus | June 8, 2016November 9, 2017 by Rachel Dacus

It’s official. History made. Glass ceiling — well, not if shattered, a network of cracks so numerous and widespread you know whose head is going through it soon. America may well have — at last — our first female president. So how has literature responded to the new world that presidential campaigns seem to indicate is approaching, a world of equality for women? Last year, complex and unlikeable but interesting female characters led the NYT…

#amrevising #amwriting #fiction first drafts novel writing poetry revising writing fiction

First drafts – just get the words out

By Rachel Dacus | May 29, 2016November 9, 2017 by Rachel Dacus

I post this advice from author Neil Gaiman with some trepidation, having just spent a solid twelve months fixing words that were relatively easy to draft. But it’s true, if you let your inner critic sit in your lap while you type, you’re going to get your hands and words bitten all over until there are almost no words left and no hands willing to make them appear. So in the words of Anne Lamott,…