By
On
In Blog posts, Writing Diversity
With 8 Comments


Diversity is a hot topic within the literary world. As a teacher of Gender and Post-Colonial Studies, the question of diversity and its representation within literature is at the forefront of everything I teach, read, and write. Even though the larger part of the canon is still made up of white heterosexual men who write about other white heterosexual men, things are gradually shifting. Self-publishing is doing a lot to alter the gender dynamic: more women are successfully self-published than men, and I have high hopes for self-publishing to open the way for non-white and non-heterosexual writers as well. Next to that, more writers are becoming increasingly aware of the necessity to include a more diverse array of characters in their work.

This last issue is the focus of my new blog series on Writing Diversity.

Each month, I will address the complexity behind the portraying of diverse characters in our work by diving deeply into a variety of topics, including essentialism, tokenism, gender, race/ethnicity, sexuality, and so on. In this first post, I will go a little deeper into the question of representation, the two steps representation is made up of, and the reason why it is important to consider both these steps when we bring diverse characters into our work.Read More →

By
On
In Blog posts
With 0 Comments

This last month has been somewhat crazy (I think I called my upcoming schedule ‘frightening’ in December’s overview). The crazy involved, amongst many other events, having to grade presentations, papers, and exams of 70 students, spending many hours caught up in hospitals in support of my family, the editing of a massive sci-fi novel, and figuring out the Introduction to Gender Studies course I will be coordinating from next week onward.

Luckily, I knew all these things were coming way back in November, so I went easy on this month’s to-do list. I did write down everything I wanted to get done, but I made sure to differentiate between what I absolutely had to do and what I could skip if necessary. Needless to say, halfway through the month I had crossed out all of the latter. If I learned anything last year, it’s knowing when to give in.

Projects done

Knowing what January was going to bring, I put a red cross through my planner in November already, vouching not to take on any more than the projects I had already planned. And I almost succeeded. Read More →

By
On
In Blog posts
With 0 Comments

First of all, happy 2017 to all of you! What a year it has been…

December was one productive month for me, and yet it felt like it was over in a matter of seconds. It remains something I can’t wrap my head around: the older I get and the more I do, the faster it goes. So what have I been up to?

Projects done

Since one of my clients needed a little more time finishing his manuscript, I had some room to update the website. I changed the colour scheme and updated the menu slightly. Some other changes will be made, but my schedule for January is outright frightening (so many books to edit, papers to grade, exams to check) that I’ll be happy to get any writing of my own done at all, let alone get the website running the way I want to.

The extra time also enabled me to try my hand at something I’d never considered doing: copywriting. One of my best friends is a gifted yoga teacher and the most intuitive person I’ve ever met. Selling herself and putting her thoughts into words aren’t her strong suits, however. Luckily, we’ve learned this month that putting her thoughts into words is something that comes natural to me, so I now write copy whenever she needs copy written. And it’s great fun, too! It isn’t a skill I’m considering adding to my services (yet), but it’s definitely something I want to play around with some more. I.e. if you are looking for someone to go over your book ads, your web content, anything, shoot me a message at marielle@mswordsmith.nl  and I’ll have a look in exchange for an ounce of gratitude or karma points.Read More →

By
On
In Blog posts
With 0 Comments

As you can read in my review of Joanna Penn’s The Successful Author Mindset: A Handbook for Surviving the Writer’s Journey, one of the practices the book made me want to pick up was that of setting intentions and reflecting on the results on a monthly basis. I’m officially starting tomorrow, but now I’ve caught the intention bug, I wanted to take a moment to consider the past month, and reflect on what November has brought me. So here goes.

Projects done

One of the projects I worked on last month was to reread a sci-fi novel that I edited last August. It was the first time I went over a novel again to check on how the writer had incorporated my comments and it was such a good experience in that it made it very tangible just how much my reading of a work helps writers to tell better stories. It was also quite flattering to see how much of my advice was taken into account. If you’re interested in this particular book, you can get it for free by joining the writer’s email list here.

I also worked on the outline of the second book in the fantasy series I’m writing. Read More →

By
On
In Blog posts, Reviews
With 0 Comments

Reading The Successful Author Mindset on our way to Dublin!I am a big fan of Joanna Penn. I listen to her podcast The Creative Penn almost religiously, and admire the wild generosity with which she shares her knowledge about the world of indie publishing like nothing else. Naturally, when I heard her talk about her new book The Successful Author Mindset: A Handbook for Surviving the Writer’s Journey, in which she was going to share even more than she already did, I knew I had to get myself a copy.

Open and honest

Joanna Penn is about as honest and open about what it’s like to be a writer as it gets, and the same goes for The Successful Author Mindset: A Handbook for Surviving the Writer’s Journey. I have to admit I was a little disappointed when it arrived because it only had 142 pages (yes, I bought an actual copy), but I soon realised the book is that small because it cuts right to the chase. There’s no beating around the bush, no unnecessary fluff, just Penn being as straightforward as she could possibly be, without being mean about it.

A universal struggle

The book is divided in three parts—Mindset Aspects of Creativity and Writing; Mindset Aspects after Publishing; and Tips for Success on the Author Journey—and in each part, Penn tackles the issues most associated with each of these. Read More →