Congratulations to my writing mentor Julia Alvarez.
By Annalisa Parent www.annalisaparent.com Congratulations to one of the best writing mentors I’ve had the honor of working with, Julia Alvarez on receiving the National Medal of Arts this week.
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Review: How to Write What You Want and Sell What You Write by Skip Press
By Annalisa Parent www.annalisaparent.com “On writing” books are a dime a dozen, but the good ones are far and few between. To continue my use of worn-out phrases, Skip Press‘ How to Write What You Want and Sell What You Write is the exception to the rule and anything but cliche. Originally published in 1995 and … [Read more…]
We writers are not alone
By Annalisa Parent www.annalisaparent.com Writers’ conferences are wonderful opportunities to remember that, as writers, though we write alone, we are not alone. Last evening I was treated, without hyperbole, to the most beautiful author talk I have ever had the honor to experience. Terry Tempest Williams is one of the most genuine and present people I … [Read more…]
The rules of writing are nothing like the rules of real life.
By Annalisa Parent www.annalisaparent.com The rules of writing are nothing like the rules of real life. In real life we censor ourselves, leave out the gory or embarrassing or overly personal details of the stories we tell about our daily lives. In writing, we have to be so brutally honest about the human emotional reality … [Read more…]
Becoming a Singles Warehouse Expert
I am really excited that after yesterday’s success of my first guest blog post with Singles Warehouse (London) that they have asked me to have a regular feature on their site. Didn’t get a chance to read the article? Click this photo:
Saturday Syntax Sass: An Author’s Pet Peeves
By Annalisa Parent www.annalisaparent.com In one of my writing lives, I write sassy columns about dating life. Today I’m here to sass about grammar. Every writer has her pet projects, her grammar or syntax particularities, and her pet peeves. For example, one of mine is agreement. How many of you would have written “Every writer has … [Read more…]
Writing for Thread Magazine
I am so excited to have teamed up with Zach Despart at Thread Magazine. I will be covering the Burlington Writers’ Workshop “The Best of the Burlington Writers Workshop 2014” Book Launch Party this Friday for publication next week.
The Importance of Musicality in Prose
By Annalisa Parent www.annalisaparent.com In one of the chapters of my life, I lived in Paris. My French boyfriend, like most twenty-year-old men, was an aspiring rock musician. I recall one day working with him on song writing; I was encouraging him to write the music to sound like the feeling of the lyrics he’d written. … [Read more…]
Building an Author Platform: Not for the Birds
by Annalisa Parent www.annalisaparent.com I haven’t been in the writing business long—and what I mean is the actual business. Sure, I’ve been writing for a long time, but my marketing platform is a fledgling one-month-old. A month has been just adequate time to discover how much many writers detest creating their marketing platforms. I will concede … [Read more…]
Digging yourself out of a writing slump
Unslumping yourself by just daring to write something Some days I feel inspirationless—or worse, I feel discouraged—that my writing isn’t good enough, or I haven’t got anything to say, or that no one wants to read what I write. And, well, that feels awful. But I’ve found that the way through it is writing. It’s … [Read more…]
A writer’s battle against the -tions: procrastination and distraction
Writers hate a lot of –tion words–particularly procrastination and distraction. Procrastination isn’t my worst enemy; well, at least not as formidable a foe as distraction. Distraction is a shape-shifter: it takes many forms. Mostly, it takes the form of something that ends with .com, and is accompanied by its favorite –tion travel pal: justification. Chapter … [Read more…]
Is reading *really* important to good writing? (With a little #TBT thrown in)
My goal for this year has been to finish all of the half-finished books on my nightstand before I start any new ones. It’s not that they’re horrible books and I’ve entirely lost interest (though I do feel guilty, for unexplained reasons, for not finishing a book—it feels like a failure or an unfinished project). … [Read more…]
Featured on Francois Clemmons’ Studio 104
While I was a book reviewer and morning DJ on WFAD, Francois Clemmons (Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood) featured me on his program Studio 104.
The day you start to see your vision coming together
I’ve been working on getting my writing out there in front of the right people for a while. Today I got the email every author dreams of: “I’d absolutely love to have you write an article for our site , exposing our customers and readers to you and your brand.” Of course, I am going … [Read more…]
My Writing Process
Sometimes the muse strikes at the oddest times, like when I’m packing my lunch. And, so, an entire chapter gets jotted down in short hand on post-it notes at the kitchen table. Such is the writer’s life. 🙂
Write with me
Life is short, and so am I. You’ll hear this quip from me often. I believe that life should be lived to the fullest and with passion. For me, that has always meant, as the Greek poet Horace so aptly stated “Mix a little foolishness with your prudence: It’s good to be silly at … [Read more…]
Laundry, Art, and Spirituality
Laundry, Art and Spirituality By Annalisa Parent It’s a weird claim to fame, really, but I used up the fifteen minutes of fame Andy Warhol told us we’d all have in the future with laundry art. Yes, laundry art. My photographs of clotheslines have been published the world over. I’ve been interviewed by international news outlets and … [Read more…]