Where to Get the Best Creative Writing Tips

You don’t have to search far to find creative writing tips. There are tons of books, websites, and magazines that happily let you in on the secrets of creativity and effective writing.

But if you really want the inside scoop on what it takes to be a successful writer, wouldn’t it be best to get it straight from a published author? Or an agent? A publisher? The poet laureate?

Writing is not the most straightforward pursuit. There is much mystery that surrounds the act of writing as well as the publication process. Obviously, we all need to be reading and writing and submitting, but we also know that there are plenty of techniques that writers can use to get through a project. We also know that agents and editors are looking for material to publish. And we know that the publishers keep putting books on the shelves in bookstores everywhere.

So, how can we get our books on those shelves? This is the question writers all over the world want answered.

Interviews with Writers and Publishing Professionals

Over the last few years, I’ve discovered some of the best creative writing tips and publishing advice by watching or listening to interviews.

Have you ever wondered what happens after you sell your book to a publishing house? Are you searching for an agent to represent your work? Do you want to know what publishers do (and don’t do) to promote your work once its been published? Want to find out how other authors have managed to finish a book, secure an agent, sell their work, and hit the best seller list?

As it turns out, the writing process and the path to publication are different for every author. Sure, there are some standard protocols – revisions, query letters, rejections, and book tours. But there are also exceptions. When you listen to writing and publishing professionals give their accounts of how a book gets made, you pick up the finer details, the nuances, and these you can use to your advantage.

Listen and Learn About Creative Writing

A good interviewer knows how to ask the right questions, questions that get people talking. When the subject of an interview is at ease, answers start to flow and embedded in those answers are the details of personal experience – nuggets of golden advice.

For example, many well known, published authors say things like “writing is revising.” Yes, they have to edit, proofread, and revise, just like the rest of us. Others talk about half-written novels, failed attempts that never made it to publication but sit tucked away in bottom drawers.

When you hear firsthand accounts of experiences that successful writers have had, it gives you new ideas. These conversations give you insight and inspiration. More importantly, they give you hope.

Writers on Writing

If you want to get the inside story on professional writing, I encourage you to listen to Writers on Writing, a weekly radio show hosted by Barbara DeMarco-Barrett. The show is broadcast via KUCI 88.9 FM, curtesy of The University of California, Irivine. It’s also available through streaming audio online and you can subscribe and listen to it via iTunes.

Here’s a little bit about the show’s host:

From Barbara’s website:

Barbara DeMarco-Barrett has published fiction, poetry, articles and essays in such journals as the Los Angeles Times, The Writer, Poets & Writers, Sunset, Westways, Orange Coast Magazine and the San Jose Mercury News. Her work has been anthologized in two books: The ASJA Guide to Freelance Writing (St. Martin’s Press, 2003) and Conversations with Clarence Major (University Press of Mississippi, 2002). She teaches creative writing at the University of California, Irvine Extension and through Gotham Writers Workshop in NYC.

Her first book is Pen on Fire: A Busy Woman’s Guide to Igniting the Writer Within (Harcourt/Harvest, October 2004), which was honored in New York City in April with the 2005 ASJA Outstanding Book Award, Self-help/Service.

I have found Writers on Writing to be a priceless resource, both for the creative writing process and for learning about the publishing industry and the steps that writers go through in order to submit and publish work.

The interviews on this show will liven your spirits, fuel your imagination, and will indeed set your pen on fire. Be sure to check it out in any format you can.

Do you ever listen to interviews with writers? What are your favorite sources for creative writing tips? Share your thoughts in the comments.