This page contains links for members of the West Windsor Library Writing Workshops.
For daily writing practice, check out 750 Words.
This is a (currently) free online service that allows you to write (and retrieve) online. Once you register (and you can use a pseudonym if you would like), you begin writing. The software notifies you when you have reached 750 words. This is about 3 pages of text, and fits author Julia Cameron’s daily minimum writing requirement, also known as “Morning Pages.” What is nifty about 750 words is, it gives you feedback. The software collects stats from your writing, and will tell you how fast you wrote, what your major areas of concentration were, your mood, your concern with past, present or future, and other interesting bits of information.
For inspiration, check out Elizabeth Gilbert on Ted Talks.
This is one of my favorite author talks, and I watch it whenever I need a lift on a writing project that is temporarily slogging. Gilbert has some inspiring concepts. Ole, ole! (listen and you will understand that comment!) Elizabeth Gilbert lives in Frenchtown New Jersey.
For reading about writing non-fiction, read Telling True Stories
This book is a compilation of wisdom from established writers, and I highly recommend it to you. Delve into any of the chapters and you’ll learn sometime new each time. Developed at Harvard University’s Neiman Foundation of Journalism, it contains… “ore than fifty well-known writers offer their most powerful tips, including:
• Tom Wolfe on the emotional core of the story
• Gay Talese on writing about private lives
• Malcolm Gladwell on the limits of profiles
• Nora Ephron on narrative writing and screenwriters
• Alma Guillermoprieto on telling the story and telling the truth” (excerpted from Amazon listing)