Amicus Script or sidebar to my Law Bulletin October column, published Nov. 1. HOW TO WRITE A LOT OF WORDS FAST. 1. Set a timer for 50 minutes. Start writing. 2. Inhabit a scene. See, hear and write everything. 3. Dissect an action — write it out in excruciating, step-by-step detail. 4. Examine...Read More

Here’s the link to an interview with my literary agent, April Eberhardt, a real advocate for authors and a “literary change agent.” She’s the one who encouraged me to sign with She Writes Press for the publication of Warming Up this fall.Read More

Fiction writing shows, not tells July 20, 2012 By Mary Hutchings Reed Mary Hutchings Reed, of counsel to Winston & Strawn LLP, has more than 35 years of experience in intellectual property and entertainment law. Read more about her at maryhutchingsreed.com/~maryhutc and fairwaysthemusical.com. Because you are a writer, and because you are well-practiced and disciplined, I’m...Read More

Women writers among you have probably already heard about She Writes new self-publishing press. What makes it different–and this is an idea I worked on in a project dubbed Chicago Public Press that we had trouble getting funded–is the vetting of manuscripts. It’s self-publishing, but not for every manuscript, so if you read a She...Read More

      Journals provide a starting place May 25, 2012 By  Mary Hutchings Reed Pencil or pen used to be the question. Then type or by hand. Now, of course, PC or Mac? There are a million questions that can become urgent when one sits down to write her novel. Fuzz bunnies that have...Read More

For Mike, and everyone considering self-publishing:  My first novel, Courting Kathleen Hannigan, was a disappointment to literary agents.  I was a lawyer.  I was female.  I was from Chicago.  Unread, they’d anointed me the next Scottie Turow or at least Scottolini.  But I let them down.  I’d written a novel about the life of a...Read More

  Writing conjures up creativity April 27, 2012 By Mary Hutchings Reed If you write or want to write fiction in your nonbillable time, this new monthly column is for you. Writing is a solitary effort, but it need not be lonely. Writers need readers when they type, “The End,” but along the way, we need...Read More

I’ve spent a fair amount of time this week getting entries ready for some contests with May 1  deadlines: stories, novellas, novels in progress, novels.  The entry fees are usualy $15, but some go as high as $40.  It’s a terrible business. You don’t hear for months, and then often the announcement is “we had 768...Read More