www.LisaManterfield.com * I'm Taking My Eggs and Going Home: How One Woman Dared to Say No to Motherhood * The Plan B Life * SCROLL TO #70 at Independent Publisher Book Awards.
For most of us, writing doesn't happen in a quiet cabin in the woods. There is no cabin, there are no woods. There is just the noise and the chaos and the pressure of life. I believe that good writing can get done in all that noise, because I've managed to do it myself and I've witnessed many other writers do it, as well. This website is designed to help you develop the habits, faith and stamina you need to succeed. In the lessons to the right you'll find some basic ideas about writing in the real world. In the blog below that, I highlight things I read and hear that illuminate and expand on these ideas, and you can find an archive of these inspirations further down in the column.
Note that all of this work is geared towards writers who are seeking either traditional publication for their books, or who would like to publish a highly polished, professional manuscript to self publish. Preparing for either process should be identical. The only difference is that if you are going to self publish, you will not need an agent, and you will not have a team of people to help with art and design, sales and distribution, publicity and marketing. You will either hire such people separately, or do that work yourself. Of course all authors need to work on sales, publicity and marketing. You can read more about that in the lesson on "the author entrepreneur."
If you are at the very beginning of the writing process and would like some additional help and inspiration about what you're doing, read Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird.