An Ex-Pat American Visiting Home After Four Years Abroad
I didn’t set foot in the United States for four years. Cue the culture shock.
5 Fun Ways To Figure Out Your Book’s Genre
It doesn’t have to be painful. Ah, the dreaded question: What genre is your story? When you think about it, genre is a bit evil. You’ve spent months – or years – wrangling words into a coherent manuscript. It has elements of so many ideas, but after all of the work and soul you’ve put…
I Researched How To Hack Readers’ Brains Into Loving My Stories
Here’s What I Learned: Five complete fiction manuscripts. Eight years. Hundreds of rejections. Zero offers of representation. Saying I was frustrated with my journey to authorship is an understatement. Worse was that agents and publishers gave the same feedback, whether in response to a query or the full manuscript: “We don’t feel like it’s a…
Had A Baby? Here’s How To Keep Writing.
The tips I wish someone had given me. “She was a great writer, but then she got married and had a baby. Don’t make that mistake, Sarah.” A fellow writer told me this during one of our group meetings. I was about twenty five at the time and dreaming of having a family of my…
My First Book Was A Train Wreck. Here’s Why:
Plus, how to avoid making my mistakes Ten years ago, I started writing fiction as an “adult.” Sure, I’d been scribbling stories since I was a kid, but none of it was serious. I was filled with confidence (first mistake) that my new English Literature degree meant I had a leg up on every other…
Are You Suffering From Writer’s Blockdown?
Here’s the 5 things I’m doing to nurture my creativity One year. Can you believe it? I’m at this strange point where I’ve forgotten what it’s like to nip over to a cafe to meet a friend, or grab a bus to the nearest mall for an afternoon shopping spree. Last night, I had a…
Introducing A Latte Words!
Hello YouTube. Clearly I’m a noob at video formatting. It’s been an interesting year. At the beginning of 2020, I was traipsing through Australia and New Zealand, with a gaming channel geared towards English learners waiting for me to continue when I got home. Never did I imagine I’d get pregnant, we’d all go into…
I Researched How To Hack Into My Reader’s Brains. Here’s The Full Dissertation:
MA Dissertation: Schema Theory and Reader Appreciation Of Literature By Sarah Long 8 January 2019 Chapter 1: Introduction The marriage of literary analysis and cognitive linguistics has been growing stronger over the past decades, and researchers are seeking to expand the field in various ways (Stockwell, 2002). One such expansion which has been suggested is…
Being Pregnant Has Been Like Jet Fuel For My Creativity
Forget Baby Brain: Pregnancy Can Boost Creative Productivity Okay, so let’s not talk about the first trimester. That was pretty much a sleep-fest, though I do like toblame lockdownfor at least some of my laziness. But now that I’ve been enjoying my second trimester for a solid two months, I can confirm that my creativity…
Want To Read More? Find Me On Medium
I’ve always been a Medium fan, but for some reason, I never thought to actually publish on the platform. Kind of silly, considering I’m a writer, but what can you do. Thankfully, something clicked in March. Maybe it was the global pandemic. Maybe it was pregnancy hormones. Whatever the cause, I decided to create my…
Pitch Wars 2019 #BoostMyBio
Apparently I’m a social media hermit, because I had no idea that #boostmybio existed until today. Anyway, I’m jumping in and posting my own bio here. If you’re reading this, and new to my website, welcome! We have plenty of aliens, unicorns, and coffee around here. There’s also a fair bit of cosplay involved. But,…
Writers! Stuck On That Synopsis? This Post Changed Everything For Me.
It’s a truth universally acknowledged, that a manuscript seeking to be traditionally published, must be in want of a synopsis. It’s also a truth, universally acknowledged, that most writers visibly cringe when the word “synopsis” comes up in conversation. Don’t believe me? Try it at the next writerly meetup. See how many silent stares of…
Deck The Halls With Strings of Book Scenes
Fa la la la la – okay, since it’s August, I’ll spare you the ear bug. For now. So I finished my first draft. As some of you may know from my previous post, I was having a tough time with this one, mostly because I didn’t strike that balance between plotting and pantsing.…
This Is What Writing My First Draft Feels Like:
You may think I’m exaggerating, but I can assure you, the teeth on this draft are sharp. I guess you can say I’ve been on a writing hiatus. With moving to London, getting my M.A., and planning wedding, things got a little complicated. Okay, a lot complicated. It’s been two years since I’ve completed the…
Sarah Long Writes 