The Daily Port of Call: January 15, 2014

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Today, in the Daily Port of Call, major authors are updating the Bard, a simple 12-day plan to jumpstart your writing practice, and the word of the year: because useful!

The four stages of the creative process: preparation, incubation, illumination, verification. 

Modernizing the Bard? The Hogarth Shakespeare program is recruiting major authors to write modern, literary retellings of Shakespeare classics.

The National Book Critics Circle announced its finalists for the best books of 2013.

Want to jumpstart your writing practice? Here is a 12-day plan of simple writing exercises.

The U.S. word of the year is because, according to the American Dialect Society. Because useful.

Mystery writing lessons from P.D. James.