Categotry Archives: Writing Life
I Write Like
It’s click bait. Only it’s the way click bait should be, with something of actual interest on the other side of the click. I happened to notice a button on someone’s blog this weekend. It’s a program that supposedly matches your writing style to that of famous writers. The first thing I put in was my Friday Fictioneer’s post, “Stairway to Heaven”. The result – I write like Steven King. Well, I can sort of see that. But I suspect […]
76,806 Words
Sometimes things just come together for you. The book I just wrote was like that. Not so much the ending, which I changed three or four times as I went, but just the way the book came together as a whole was great. I’ve got a couple of Works In Progress that are like pulling teeth. To have one whip together so fast and so clean from a start with so little to go on was really fun. This manuscript […]
Suzie’s House 236: The Lurker
Ben couldn’t stand it any longer. He had to write this all down. This, this drama stuff that always seemed to be a part of Gene was better than fiction! Mrs. Audrey would love it. Ben could write it up so she wouldn’t know and….
NaNoWriMo
I’ve become a NaNo addict. NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month. It takes place every year in November. The idea is to write a novel of at least 50,000 words in one month. This is the third time I’ve done it. Why? Because of the library. Yeah, yeah, the library is there all year long. What does it have to do with NaNo? Well, a bunch of us get together in the library to encourage one another to get our […]
Suzie’s House 213 : Big Idea
“Humph!” The idiot. How hard could it be to sit down and write a story? Lisa stomped her way down the hall, feeling awkward for being in Ben’s house after saying something she knew would make him mad, as if the house itself were telling her she didn’t belong here. “Hey, Lisa.” Tracy came out of Gene’s room. She had a rosy look to her cheeks, and Lisa suspected she and Gene had been kissing. Gene came to the doorway, […]
Suzie’s House 190: Fahrenheit Inspiration
Ben read a chapter or two, then put Fahrenheit 450 down and stared into space. “I want to write something like that,” he muttered. “Only not like that.” He stared some more. “I want to write something that good.” He pulled his spiral notebook close. It was already open to a blank page.
Suzie’s House 143: A Walk in the Park
It was only a few months between the day I watched two red haired men run out of Cindy’s apartment during a party and the next time I ran into Suzie’s son, Ben, but it seemed like a couple of years had gone by. In that time, Ben had nearly been abducted by those red haired men, seen them arrested, been accused of insanity by a crazy teacher, sent his own father to jail for attempted murder, rescued his best […]
Find Gene’s Father’s Name
I went to my first ever live NaNo event this Sunday. Imagine a score of people sitting at a long table, all writing. That was it. No conversation, no joking, the only sound the clatter of keyboards, the scritch of pens on paper, and the rustle of snack wrappers. It was great! In an hour and a half (I was late arriving) I managed to eek out as many words as I’d done all day the day before. They aren’t […]
Check out my Cover Art
What do you think? Frankly, I’m a little disappointed. Even though I’d heard many, many authors complain about how little control they had over their covers, and knew they also received information request sheets from the art department, when I got mine, I dared imagine what kind of cover I would like. This isn’t it. Not that this is bad. It simply isn’t what I was hoping for. For instance, it doesn’t really look like much when you shrink it […]
104 Submissions in a Year
I’m going for it. I have little control over being accepted. Even if I do my very best work both on my manuscripts and on my queries there is no guarantee I will even be read, let alone offered a contract. I’ve been letting this lack of control hold me back. No more! A while back Shelly Munro said she had a deal with a friend to see who could pile up the most rejections. The one with the most […]
Thursday Thirteen #20: Writing Positives
It was suggested last week that I might be dwelling on the negative about my writing. I don’t see it that way. A mistake is just a mistake. So long as I fix it, who cares if I messed up? No one but me needs to see my rough drafts. Well, except for Suzie’s House, but we aren’t going there. Right? So anyway, here’s a list of positive things about my writing. 1. Even when it’s torture, I still enjoy […]
TT #19: Ways To Screw Up a Manuscript
Yes, these are all things I have done. Yes, I regret them all. 1 – Say over and over in one chapter that the hero’s eyes are a vivid blue then mention how brown they are two chapters later. 2 – Fall in love with the word “That”, or “As” and refuse to get rid of a couple hundred usages. 3 – Include more than two exclamation marks in a paragraph. 4 – Forget to include any setting details. […]
Thursday Thirteen #16: Discoveries While Writing A Miss for Mark
I tried a different technique on the book I just finished writing. I started with a detailed outline on a spreadsheet that included GMC for hero and heroine, plot, subplot, POV notes, and emotional arcs for each scene. I was hoping to cut down on plot holes and revisions. Here’s what I discovered. 1. For the way I write, 67 scenes is way too many for a 90,000 word book. I ended up ditching or condensing about 1/3 of […]
Which Way Do You Go Around Your Car?
I did all right this week. I finished the rough draft of A Miss for Mark, which is why the ticker came down on all the boards where I hang out. Yay! It’s so good to have that done. Now if only it didn’t need so much revision. We closed the polls on the Best Revisions of 2007 at FanLit Forever. Yay Natasia for first place. I started my submission for the next round, though I’m no where near done […]
American Title: My Journey by Helen Scott Taylor
Remember a while back when I mentioned that a friend of mine is in the American Title contest? Here she is. Allow me to introduce Helen Scott Taylor. Here I am in the fifth and final round of American Title IV with the chance to win a publishing contract for my story The Magic Knot, and I have to admit, I nearly didn’t enter.As the contest is called ‘American Title’, I thought I wouldn’t be eligible because I live in […]
