September 3, 2019
Help! Writer’s Block!
By Guest Blogger, Maggie Smith
The email arrived at ten o’clock last night. It was from my best writing buddy with the subject line HELP!
A week had gone by and she hadn’t produced any new work. Not a single chapter, not a single paragraph, not a single sentence. But she was a pro—she knew what to do. So she walked her dog. She swam laps at the pool. She cooked a gourmet meal…
August 27, 2019
Series: Behind the Pen
Meet the CWA Board
Welcome to Behind the Pen, a series of interviews beginning with the Board of Directors of the Chicago Writers Association. Two weeks ago we posted the first in this series, featuring our president Randy Richardson. If you haven't seen it READ IT HERE. Today we are featuring board member…
August 13, 2019
Series: Meet the Board of Directors of CWA
by Christina Rodriguez
Interview with Randy Richardson, President of the Chicago Writers Association
An attorney and award-winning journalist, Randy Richardson is a founding member and first president of the nonprofit Chicago Writers Association. He is the first male recipient of the National Federation of Press Women’s Communicator of Achievement Award and was…
July 29, 2019
Allium Press Turns 10!
by Samantha Hoffman
One of our favorite people, and a treasured supporter of CWA, is Emily Victorson. Emily participated in the popular small publishers panel last year at Let's Just Write! An Uncommon Writers Conference, and we are looking forward to her participation again in 2020. Be sure to introduce yourself to…
July 16, 2019
Putting Your Work Out There…And Surviving
Samantha Hoffman
Every parent knows how scary it is to send your child out into the world, but that's what you do, it's the life cycle, the natural order of things; you give these beings life, you do your work in making them the best they can be — someone you (and…
July 2, 2019
Plotting By The Numbers
By Samantha Hoffman
Wouldn't it be great if there was a formula for plotting your novel, and all you had to do was fill in the blanks with your wonderful prose? You can actually find this kind of formula - just Google "formula for plotting novel" and you'll come up with 61,800,000 results.
…June 25, 2019
GUIDELINES FOR GUEST BLOGGERS
If you are interested in being a guest blogger for CWA’s Write City Blog, please READ THE FOLLOWING GUIDELINES:
- The Write City Blog is focused on the art, craft and community of writing.
- With our focus in mind, interested bloggers are encouraged to contribute an original article of approximately…
June 18, 2019
Building the Novel: One Step at a Time
by Dan Burns
When I sat down to write my latest novel, A Fine Line (Chicago Arts Press, June 6, 2017), I wasn’t embarking on a new project. The project was old. The protagonist, Sebastian Drake, was old, and the idea for his story had been in my mind for over five…
June 6, 2019
A Proper Flogging
by Kristin Oakley
There’s a terrific website for writers called Writer Unboxed which includes articles on the craft and business of fiction written by bestselling authors and industry experts. Their newsletter is great, too.
The highlight for me is a regular column by Ray Rhamey called Flog a Pro: would…
May 22, 2019
Improve Your Writing With a Critique Group
by Samantha Hoffman
Critique groups are one of the best ways of improving your writing. As a novelist I can, and do, edit my own manuscript. Of course. That's part of the process. But that only works to a point. I've lived with my novels-in-progress and these words for a long time and…
