The Agile Writer – Page 10 – Greg Smith: Novelist and Coach

June 15, 2015

Writer’s Block

When words abandon a writer, it can feel catastrophic. But, it happens to all of us—the professional and the amateur, the published and the unpublished, the new and the seasoned. The question is how do we treat this most devastating of writing ailments? Firstly, we must establish that writer’s block exists. There is some controversy over this. According to Anne […]

Guest Blogger Writing 0 3 min read

June 10, 2015

Developing Secondary Characters

The Agile Writers approach to writing a novel focuses clearly around the hero figure and their story. But, the more you step into the world of your hero, the more you recognize the need for fully developed secondary characters. The hero can only have as much depth as his or her world, after all. So, while deliberate strategies for fleshing […]

Guest Blogger Character 0 3 min read

June 3, 2015

Drafting 1, 2, 3 . . .

I have recently begun the second draft of my Agile Writers novel. For some, it seems, the second draft is a breeze. They go through and plug in the edits they got from their wonderful critique partners, humming along and spitting out fifteen or twenty pages a week. This has not been my experience. I have had a very difficult […]

Guest Blogger Writing 0 3 min read

May 27, 2015

Literary vs. Genre: Do I Have to Choose?

So, just how wide is the gap between Literary and Genre Fiction? I found two relevant recent articles that helped me think about this topic: Firstly, “Literary Fiction vs. Genre Fiction” by Steve Petite, in The Huffington Post. This article concludes, “In essence, the best Genre Fiction contains great writing, with the goal of telling a captivating story to escape from […]

Guest Blogger Publishing 0 3 min read

May 19, 2015

Taking Notes on Life

Writers are in the business of noticing. Just as the skilled eye of a painter takes in a sunset and sees subtle undertones of color and the play of positive and negative space, writers look at a stranger’s face or a tree branch or the slant of afternoon light and see a story. Everything we ever write is an attempt […]

Guest Blogger Writing 0 2 min read

May 6, 2015

A Dragon Named ‘Publishing’

The journey of writing a novel, or other lengthy work, is a bit of a hero’s journey unto itself. For months or even years you keep your head down, diligently doing your work, the daily effort of writing. Maybe you get feedback from a few trusted others, you make changes, you cycle through edits and polish paragraphs. Then the day […]

Guest Blogger Publishing 0 2 min read

April 30, 2015

What’s In a (Pen) Name?

At this week’s meeting, as a number of writers have recently completed first drafts of their novels, our leader Greg Smith was gathering official titles and author names with which to update our website (agilewriters.org). This mere housekeeping activity opened into an organic discussion by the group of the decisions surrounding Pen Names. Of course there is strong historic precedent […]

Guest Blogger Articles 0 3 min read

April 16, 2015

Quiet the Chatter of Your Mind

Here at Agile Writers, we have a mantra “Constantly Move Forward.” There are so many ways to get stuck. A novel is a long project. A snafu at any juncture can derail the whole venture. We explored one common obstacle to the writing process this week in our weekly “Craft of Writing” installment. Periodically, we choose a book about the […]

Guest Blogger Blogging 0 2 min read

January 10, 2015

5 Reasons WordPress.com is for Authors

One of the first recommendations I give to my writers is to create a website and a Facebook page. This is the beginning of creating a platform for selling their book. Even if the book isn’t written yet, the new writer needs to create an interested following. The easiest way to do this is through social media. As a writer, […]

Greg Smith Articles 0 3 min read

December 20, 2014

Storyboard: Night at the Museum 3

The following is a digest of a movie in the format of the Agile Writer Method. The Story Abstract gives a high-level overview of the story. The Hero Abstract gives an overview of the Hero (protagonist). The Storyboard is an 8-stage breakdown of the story along with elements of the Hero’s Journey (by Joseph Campbell and Christopher Vogler). You can learn more […]

Greg Smith Heroes 0 8 min read

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