Category Archives: 2024

Interview with Author Susan Luzader on Her Blog and Three-Book Series

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on by

Author Susan Luzader has had an inspiring book publishing journey, and this month our Writing It Real article explores it with her. Visit her website Wine and Cereal: An Irreverent Look at Sixty-ish and Single to sign up for her … Continue reading →

WIR 2024 Anthology: On Advice That I Received and How It Turned Out

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on by

We are excited to announce the digital publication of Writing It Real members’ newest anthology! The essays and poems in it tackle the subject of listening to or refusing to listen to advice. We hope you enjoy reading the entries in the book, which is available below for download in a choice of formats as … Continue reading →

To access this post, you must purchase Online Personal Essay Writing Workshop + Membership, Development and Line Editing + Membership, Yesim Cimcoz Where Story Begins + Membership, Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor – How Editing Helps You Find Your Way + Membership 11:00AM, Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor – How Editing Helps You Find Your Way + Membership 2:00PM, Poetry Writing Workshop + Membership, In-Class Writing and Responses – Your Writing Will Surprise You! + Membership 2:00PM, In-Class Writing and Responses – Your Writing Will Surprise You! + Membership 11:00 AM, Summer Reading Summer Writing Plus Membership, Write More Healthy Starts Plus Membership, You: Writing in the 2nd Person Online Workshop Plus Membership, Keep Goin’ On Your Writing over the Holidays Plus Membership, Writing for Young Readers Plus Membership, Introduction to Scrivener — Plus Membership, Writing Healthy Starts + Membership, Eight Half-Hour Consults + Membership, Befriending the Giant + Membership, Write! Write! Write! Writing Exercises for Writing Prose from Personal Experience + Membership, Phone Consult: 3750 Words or Six Poems + Membership, The 3 E’s: Epistolary, Ekphrastic and Epideictic + Membership, Four Half-Hour Consults + Membership or New! Using the Flash Series Technique to Write Memoir.

Continue reading →

On Writing Bylines and Blessings, Overcoming Obstacles, Striving for Excellence and Redefining Success

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on by

Writing It Real Contributor Judy Gruen has a second memoir out. I had the lucky experience of interviewing her about how she came to write her memoir, Writing Bylines and Blessings, Overcoming Obstacles, Striving for Excellence and Redefining Success, and … Continue reading →

Dialogue to Diffuse the Power of Critical Voices, For my students who say they can’t write dialog

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on by

Years ago, I was flying Southwest Airlines from Seattle to Tucson where I was going to teach a weekend writing class. Southwest Airlines gave boarding passes at the gate, first come, first serve, and then loaded their planes in boarding groups without assigning particular seats to passengers. Therefore, people began lining up for the passes … Continue reading →

To access this post, you must purchase Online Personal Essay Writing Workshop + Membership, Development and Line Editing + Membership, Yesim Cimcoz Where Story Begins + Membership, Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor – How Editing Helps You Find Your Way + Membership 11:00AM, Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor – How Editing Helps You Find Your Way + Membership 2:00PM, Poetry Writing Workshop + Membership, In-Class Writing and Responses – Your Writing Will Surprise You! + Membership 2:00PM, In-Class Writing and Responses – Your Writing Will Surprise You! + Membership 11:00 AM, Summer Reading Summer Writing Plus Membership, Write More Healthy Starts Plus Membership, You: Writing in the 2nd Person Online Workshop Plus Membership, Keep Goin’ On Your Writing over the Holidays Plus Membership, Writing for Young Readers Plus Membership, Introduction to Scrivener — Plus Membership, Writing Healthy Starts + Membership, Eight Half-Hour Consults + Membership, Befriending the Giant + Membership, Write! Write! Write! Writing Exercises for Writing Prose from Personal Experience + Membership, Phone Consult: 3750 Words or Six Poems + Membership, The 3 E’s: Epistolary, Ekphrastic and Epideictic + Membership, Four Half-Hour Consults + Membership or New! Using the Flash Series Technique to Write Memoir.

Continue reading →

Our Writing Minds Depend on This

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on by

Originally Posted on December 11, 2013 by Sheila Bender   Writing depends on our willingness to observe closely and our ability to allow ourselves to engage emotionally with what we are observing. So often, though, we don’t remember to take time to … Continue reading →

An Interview with Ruth Linnea Whitney on Writing Her Novel Mimosa Road & Tips for Others Who Want to Write Novels

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on by

Ruth Linnea Whitney is a novelist who has lived in Port Townsend, WA, on the Olympic Peninsula for decades. She is also a woman who has traveled extensively to third world countries with her doctor husband, who many times over … Continue reading →

Memoirist Tarn Wilson Interviews Novelist Mike Karpa, Author of the Novel The Wealthy Whites of Williamsburg, on His Writing Process

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on by

Tarn Wilson tells us: When I was in my twenties, I joined a writing group of more experienced writers, which, for fifteen years, felt like having my own creative writing graduate program. Mike Karpa was a founding member of that … Continue reading →

The Fog: Prologue to Michael Karpa’s Novel The Wealthy Whites of Williamsburg

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on by

The Fog Casey wandered the Port Authority bus terminal, newly disembarked off her bus from Memphis and feeling like midtown Manhattan had punched her in the face. A guy approached. The man looked like a farmworker who’d wandered in straight … Continue reading →