Spontaneous Combustion: A Writers Primer for Creative Revival

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Spontaneous Combustion: A Writer's Primer for Creative Revival

Refresh and try again. Open Preview See a Problem? Thanks for telling us about the problem. Return to Book Page. Preview — Spontaneous Combustion by Nancy Butts. Part writing guide, part writer's memoir, this book strives to provide inspiration for writers grappling with doubt or slogging through a creative drought. More of a why-to than a how-to, this book nonetheless provides practical tips--some of them unorthodox--on what writers can try when they find more and more excuses not to sit down at their desks and do the work they us Part writing guide, part writer's memoir, this book strives to provide inspiration for writers grappling with doubt or slogging through a creative drought.

More of a why-to than a how-to, this book nonetheless provides practical tips--some of them unorthodox--on what writers can try when they find more and more excuses not to sit down at their desks and do the work they used to love.

The author is a former newspaper journalist turned children's author and book editor. This book was born out of her own experience and that of the many students and clients she has worked with as a writing teacher and manuscript consultant. Paperback , pages. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about Spontaneous Combustion , please sign up.

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Be the first to ask a question about Spontaneous Combustion. Lists with This Book. This book is not yet featured on Listopia. Jun 11, Brittany rated it it was amazing Shelves: I first need to say that I received this book as a Goodreads, first read, and giveaway. I really enjoyed this book and found the advice useful.

Its short sweet and an easy read, spotted with a little humor. I would recommend this book to any writer who needs a little boost of confidence, or a little pep-talk to get them energized and working on their writing again. I really think Butts cares about helping other writers gain the confidence and the drive to write and keep writing even when things g I first need to say that I received this book as a Goodreads, first read, and giveaway. I really think Butts cares about helping other writers gain the confidence and the drive to write and keep writing even when things get tough.

Thank you for putting yourself out there, I will add your advice to my writing practice. Jun 10, Geoffrey Porter rated it really liked it Recommends it for: Not enough new material for me. There are so many books like this one, and there isn't a lot of stuff in this book that isn't in other similar books. It does the job as far as being inspirational though. I will say, one piece of advice in the book really worked for me. I have employed the technique they recommend 2x now, and both times I was able to produce a a bit of fresh fiction, so hats off, the book helped me Melissa rated it it was amazing May 15, Alberto Hazan rated it it was amazing Sep 06, Dorothy rated it really liked it Aug 26, Marianne rated it liked it Apr 07, Elizabeth Marianne Gage rated it really liked it Jan 19, Barry marked it as to-read May 12, Xenia marked it as to-read May 12, Jennifer marked it as to-read May 13, Kim Coomey marked it as to-read May 13, Kim Johnston marked it as to-read May 13, Jd Guinn marked it as to-read May 13, Mike Casey marked it as to-read May 13, And if she hadn't gone to Duke University, where she learned that in order to be premed she had to hang out in chemistry lectures with other students, she might be a doctor today.

Instead, she took a seminar in Zen Buddhism and decided that spending all her time talking about big ideas in small classes with bearded professors was what college was supposed to be about. She switched her major to religion--with a minor in Russian of all things--happily haunted the stacks of the college library for four years even better than a coat closet! So she sat down, read all 88 Agatha Christie mystery novels in two months, took a job in a lab, got married, moved to Georgia, and spent the next six years thinking that she really should have applied to medical school after all.

Then she tried PA school instead, had an early mid-life crisis, and when someone asked her what she saw herself doing in ten years, she suddenly remembered what she had known back in fifth grade: She quit school, and within a few months she had landed a job as a reporter at a small-town newspaper. She spent the next eleven years working there, writing several stories each week and winning awards.

But once her son was born she secretly started to write her first children's book--the story that ultimately became her debut novel, "Cheshire Moon. It took her years to finish that first book, then four months to find a publisher. When she learned that her editor was the same man who had also edited her girlhood idol, Madeleine L'Engle, Nancy felt as if she had finally found what she was meant to do.

This book was soon followed by the science fiction novel "The Door in the Lake," which Nancy wrote so that her son might actually be interested in reading it. He took it to school after it was published and shared it with his friends, so she thinks she succeeded.

Since then Nancy spends much of her time working as a creative writing teacher and manuscript editor. Then in April she published her first book for adults: A Writer's Primer for Creative Revival.

Somewhere during these years she also managed to land a spot as a contestant on the TV game show "Jeopardy" and was a one-day champion. But writing fiction for kids continues to be her passion, and she is working hard on another middle grade novel set in a sleepy Southern town much like the one where she lives: There is just one ghost in the year-old Victorian cottage where Nancy lives and works: When she's not teaching, editing, or trying to carve out time for her own writing, Nancy is an avid walker; and she also likes to grow herbs, make quilts, knit miles and miles of scarves, play the mountain dulcimer and Finnish kantele, be the Mac tech support person for everyone she knows, and tend to her slightly neurotic Newfoundland dog, Yukon.

Visit her at www. Are you an author? Help us improve our Author Pages by updating your bibliography and submitting a new or current image and biography. Learn more at Author Central. Treat yourself; free downloads of two wondrous new MG fantasies.

Just in time for the holidays, two of my editing clients are staging a joint book launch on November 22nd. It has been both my privilege and my pleasure to be a guide along the way for these two marvelous middle grade authors, and if you love magical fantasy and stories about worlds-within-worlds, you owe it to yourself and to any young readers in your life to download these books—and indeed, all the titles in both series. Emma Warner-Reed is launching B. I write long, especially on first drafts—and I am not alone. I see the same dangerous prolixity in the manuscripts of many of my editing clients and writing students.

And the more we ramble, the higher our word count creeps. Intended as a middle grad. Birth announcement for Melissa Roske's debut novel. I am beyond excited this morning: Melissa Roske, one of my "ducklings" as I secretly call my writing students and freelance clients, is celebrating a huge milestone today. I've already ordered two copies, one for her to autograph next June when the book finally comes out, and one for my iPad.

And to celebrate, she's offering a b. Happy Fourth of July! Another plug for the serial comma. As my students and clients know, I am a big fan of the serial, or Oxford comma—you know, that punctuation mark that belongs in a list of three or more things before the word and.

If you can't make time to read Truss' book [although reall. Read Christine Kohler on keeping an emotions journal [yours truly is quoted]. Drifting on a lake of peace—and I've got a chapter in a new book that just came out. I just returned from a nearly-idyllic month away from the suffocating heat and humidity of summer in the South.

I spent all that time in one of two mountain ranges: I am lucky enough to have a sister with a camp, as they call it up there, on a lake in the Adirondacks, and t. Choosing the Perfect POV: This is the sixth and last in a series of articles on demystifying viewpoint. The originals will appear first as posts on my Spontaneous Combustion blog, then be archived here on my website as downloadable PDFs.

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Just ask the characters in the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Photo by Madder of Grail in Valencia, Spain. This is the fifth in a series of articles on demystifying viewpoint. The originals will appear first as posts on my Spontaneous Combustion blog, then be archived on my website as downloadable PDFs. Library of CongressSome of my favorite books are written in omniscient viewpoint—and yet omni POV is my least favorite form of narration. It makes even the most modern of books sound antique—and don't even get me started on the almost ubiquitous head hopping to be found in novels wi.

Photo by ProjectManhattanAfter lamenting the failure of my morning page experiment last week, I vowed to cook up a little something of my own to try instead. Epic fail, but new experiment coming. While I was laid up in a cast after Achilles tendon surgery the past two months, I decided to give Julia Cameron's morning pages a try, subjecting the fabled advice on creativity to a day experiment. And for me at least, morning pages were a flop. I make this declaration even though I enjoyed writing them every morning, and even though I felt they had some benefit.

Spontaneous Combustion: A Writer's Primer for Creative Revival

But they didn't achieve what I thought was their purpose—not just to unlock one's creativity in some vague and gener. Rebel without a clue: I am somewhat embarrassed to admit that after all my years as a writer and writing teacher, I have never read Julia Cameron's famous The Artist's Way. They helped Mia find her way out of a painful creative desert, which provoked me to do a little research and find out what these morning pages are all about.

Because what writer amongst us can't use inspiration? I know I ca. The walking orthopedic disaster zone strikes again! Meet Rowdy, my new ride for the next four to six weeks. I will have to be off the leg completely for at least a month, part of the time in a cast: Do I know how to have fun or what? Why Lemony Snicket is my hero. The terrible phone call, the rainstorm, the sinister knock on the door—they will all come. Soon enough arrive the treacherous villain and the unfair trial and the smoke and the flames of the suspicious fires to burn everything away. In the meantime, it is best to grab what wonderful moments you find lying around.

Fast Track to Compelling Character Voice. This is the fourth in a series of articles on demystifying viewpoint.

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