How do you respond when the little voice inside your head tells you your writing is awful? This voice, of course, is the same one that—just the night before—assured you a Newberry Award was within reach. What do you do when you can’t stop revising the same sentence? How do you feel when a potential agent rejects your manuscript as “unrealistic”—and he is talking about your autobiography?
Published authors Valley Haggard, Eliezer Sobel and Louise Hawes—with award-winning writer Gigi Amateau serving as moderator—discussed such maddening moments at JRW’s Writing Show on Thursday, April 25 at the Children’s Museum of Richmond. While each of these writers tackles stumbling blocks in a different manner, they all advocate clearing the mind to make way for creativity. The brain is like a rusty faucet, Sobel told the audience. You have to let the brown water run a while before clear liquid can emerge. (more…)
JRW launched its 2013 season of the Writing Show by discussing ways writers can work with bookstores to better sell their work. “Bookstore Battle Plan” featured speakers Kat Spears from the Library of Virginia Bookshop, Elizabeth Gleichman, Assistant General Manager of Books-A-Million and JRW’s own Virginia “Ginny” Pye, whose debut novel comes out in May. JRW Chair Bill Blume moderated the discussion, which focused on what do to and not do when working with booksellers. 
What should authors do when they get stuck and feel as though everything they write falls flat or gets rejected? Panelists attempted to answer that question while speaking to an overflow crowd at the March 29th Writing Show.