Projects
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How to be an excellent critique partner
If you want to keep improving your writing, you will want to foster relationships with people who give you the best feedback. But in order to get you need to give. A great critique partner is not going to continue to spend their precious writing time scouring over your chapter if you are not offering Read more
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Fixing a Climax Chapter
In one of my novels I’m editing there is chapter, a big chapter, an explosive, climactic chapter that is just full of problems. At first I thought it was just the choreography of the final scene. It wasn’t spaced quite right, it didn’t move fluidly, it was confusing and it didn’t possess the punch it Read more
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Research to compliment your story, not to be your story
So if you missed the news, I finished another first draft. Woo hoo! This one was a bit different than my previous projects because it was based on actual mythology and history. Research was necessary. Tons and tons of research. As far as this subject goes (and I don’t want to give away too much Read more
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Second Blogiversary!
Hard to believe it’s been two years since I finally decided I was going to do this. Looking back, I am amazed at what I’ve been able to accomplish in two years, even as I have so much I’m still striving toward. Pursuing writing is a challenging path and there have been plenty of times Read more
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Don’t try to write a perfect first draft
After I realized that what I first put on the page was not necessary my best writing (imagine my horror!) I concluded that I would save myself a lot of work and effort if I edited as I wrote. And so it took me more than five years to write a first draft. And it Read more
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Stuck plot? Drop a bomb
Apparently I’m not alone in running out of steam in the middle of a manuscript. I have been trying to force my way through a sticky patch somewhere in the middle for the last couple weeks and coming up with nothing, so I was reading a few articles last night that commiserated with my plight. Read more
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Plot comes first
Writers are explorers. Explorers of the mind, explorers of the world, the universe, the alternate universes. Chasers of What ifs and How could this be. And it is really pretty excellent. But sometimes we get so lost in our explorations on paper, that we forget we are there to tell a story. Have you ever Read more
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Fail like a M*F* boss
I finally heard back from an agent who had my manuscript. Rejected. The bottle of Moet and Chandon must wait for another day to be popped. But the truth is, I am kinda relieved. Not because I didn’t want her as an agent I would have loved to have worked with her, but because I Read more
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An experiment in short storying
I believe I have mentioned I have a hard time writing short stories, which is disapointing because there are so many great opportunities available for short story writers. the least not being some credits to your name. Last night I was reviewing some notes and came across a novel idea I had hastily scrawled out Read more
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Does your story have a point?
When my five year old tells me a story, so every ten minutes, they usually are structured like this: Character introduction- thing happens- thing happens – character change- plot twist – scene change – character name change – new characters introduced – total change in plot/scene/characters/everything – mommy gets a little impatient and stops listening Read more
LC W. Allingham 