My sister gave me this biography of playwright Wendy Wasserstein for Christmas. It is a masterfully told tale of a complex woman, and a fantastic profile of what it takes to make art. I'd recommend it for anyone interseted in theater, writing, creativity and women making their way in the world.
blueprint for a book
Starting in 2012, I'm going to be giving away "Blueprint for a Book" critiques on twitter. What's a blueprint for a book? It's a method I devised for summarizing a book before you write it so that you can be sure you're writing the best book. What's makes "Blueprint" different from other summarizing methods (many of which are excellent and which I'll be listing here soon) is that it asks you to think of all facets of your book -- not just what happens or what the topic is. It asks you to look at the marketplace, the audience for your book and your own fears, and it asks you to do all this on one page.
Why would you want to undertake such torture (and it is hard!) Because a.) there's nothing like it to help you envision your book on the page and your book in the world, and being able to have that vision is a key step in bringing your book to life and b.) it's hugely useful to get feedback on your vision from other people so that you can revise and tweak and hone it before you spend three years writing three hundred words that don't quite work.
"Blueprint for a Book" -- Click to access a PDF of the full version. I walk you through the whole thing in this version, and there are no restrictions on page length. This is a document I use with my coaching clients, but you're welcome to use it on your own.
"Blueprint for a Book" -- the twitter contest version. This is a simplified version of the full version. It appears below. You can also click on the link for a PDF to print out.
