I read about as slowly as I write. There was a time I could devour a novel in 3-4 days. Wish I had those kind of days now. But come to think of it, I wasn’t writing when I read at that pace. So why does this post include a picture my son took at…
No, I didn’t get a haircut. I’m attempting to revise the 1st draft of my novel. Reading JW Manus, I’m probably not doing as much as I should to get into the joy of cutting. I must say, however, that I particularly enjoyed reading one of her descriptions of Explainery: “A trees grows and the…
There is nothing more exciting than the moment when an idea invades your brain. Characters, settings, and scenes for that next story appear out of nowhere, or come in dreams, or when you’re sitting at a stoplight. (Why are those people honking at me?) So what do you do? You jot down a few notes…
A post from Warrior Muse about Teaser Tuesdays reminded me of memes that always pop up on Facebook: Grab a book you are currently reading Open to a find a random page Write the first sentence on that page ProfHacker mentioned a similar strategy, using this as an exercise to get your own creative juices going…
“I get very confused when a writer with a few hundred friends on Facebook and Twitter thinks that repeating the publication of their book over and over and over and over will make them more than a handful of sales. And fewer friends.” —Dean Wesley Smith Words to remember. Okay…I am months away from placing…
The last ~4,000 words of my novel were well received at writers group last week. Satisfying, passionate, touching, emotional. Tied up all the loose ends. YES! I don’t want you to think my writer friends just say glowing things because if all they did was squee then I wouldn’t grow as a writer. (Please, if…
I attend an (almost) weekly gathering of writers here in town. Cathy, Mark, and Marie have eagerly offered their critiques on the writing I’ve subjected them to, everything from Star Wars to historical fiction, poetry to drabbles, and my current endeavor, Keeping the Family Peace. For almost three years, I’ve heard words of encouragement that…
Oh come on. Admit it! Did you ever want to be someone else? Or want to have a different name? I know I did. As a kid, I didn’t really care for my given name. It was…different. My friends had ‘normal’ names like Mary, Nancy, Susan, Debbie, Karen. I was Charlene. You can’t exactly tell…
