By Nava Atlas | On October 23, 2016 | Updated August 10, 2023 | Comments (0)
Failure is no picnic, nor the fear of it, but the prospect of success can be just as scary. Actually, in some ways success can be scarier. It shakes up the status quo; failure is more likely to maintain it— you can continue to dance with the devil you know.
Like Edna Ferber, it’s possible to view success and failure as parts of an intertwined process rather than as opposites. If you fail occasionally, it means you’re stretching beyond your comfort zone. Your view of success won’t always match with the world’s.
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By Nava Atlas | On October 14, 2016 | Updated June 13, 2025 | Comments (0)
Tales of literary rejection are the war stories of writers. Nearly everyone experiences it, even (or especially) writers who eventually became famous and successful, but that doesn’t make it any more fun.
Rejection, we’ve been told, is part of the path to publication. We’re advised to grow a tough hide and accept that most rejections are nothing personal.
Even so, any kind of rejection can stings—even the bland “not looking at this time.” That’s because it’s difficult to separate the rejection of one’s work from the rejection of one’s self. Read More→
By Nava Atlas | On October 2, 2016 | Updated December 3, 2025 | Comments (2)
In A Room of One’s Own, Virginia Woolf ponders: “Why did men drink wine and women water? Why was one sex so prosperous and the other so poor? What effect does poverty have on fiction? What conditions are necessary for the creation of works of art?”
Indeed, what are the challenges pertaining to writing and money, especially in the case of women authors? Here, several classic authors illuminate the challenges, in their own words. These questions linger, and raise others—not the least of which is, have women in the arts progressed as much as it seems we should have since the time of Virginia Woolf, or indeed, the time of George Sand or Louisa May Alcott? Read More→
By Nava Atlas | On September 25, 2016 | Updated August 15, 2021 | Comments (0)
Here are 5 great writing tips from Edna Ferber, timeless pieces of advice for would-be and experienced writers. Edna Ferber (1885-1968) is a name perhaps less known today than some of the others in this group, but she was considered one of the most successful authors of her era—primarily the 1920s through the early 50s.
With their strong female characters, imaginative plots, and colorful locales, most of her novels became not only best sellers but Academy Award-winning movies and Broadway shows. Perhaps her name has been somewhat forgotten, but the sprawling stories she told in Giant, Showboat, Saratoga Trunk, and many others live on.
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By Nava Atlas | On September 15, 2016 | Updated May 17, 2026 | Comments (0)
“Finding your writing voice” is a directive that teeters on cliché. Yet, what’s more important than developing a distinctive personality in print?
It takes a long time for writers, especially women, to raise their writing voices above a proverbial whisper. All those familiar “Who do you think you are …” demons rush in to fill the void where confidence be firmly set into place.
Without a firm grip on voice, you’re left either with whispering shyly, or its flip side, endlessly blathering streams of overwrought prose or poetry, the literary equivalent of nervous chatter. Read More→
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