first draft
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Work in Progress, Spec Pub’s Story Crafting Workbook is here
When you start out as a workshop called “Writers Block” you come up with a lot of methods for getting a story on the page. River Eno, Susan Tulio and I have struggled our way through four collections of utter speculation, starting with Roanoke where we had no idea what we were doing. Read more
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When you have writing momentum DON’T STOP!
You will scrape and toil, pecking out a few horrific words and deleting them for days, weeks, months, years. You will stare at blank pages in utter horror as the words in your mind shrivel, unwritten, into dust. Then one day you still start to write and it will flow. When this happens, my best 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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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
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84,500 words. 1 Month. Done. Bam
Ten tips that helped me accomplish a full length first draft in a month. Read more
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How to keep writing? Skip the boring parts
I am writing the first draft and I want to keep going with it, if something is boring me enough stop writing than I am going to just move on to build up or an exciting parts. Read more
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Picking an idea for NaNoWriMo that will carry you through
In order to write 50,000 words in 30 days, you certainly need discipline and determination. A plan is nice too, but without passion and inspiration, there will be little joy in the challenge. Without joy, it’s very possible you will not be able to manufacture the motivation to see it through to the end. There Read more
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Editing tricks you might not know of
Officially back up to my waist in editing, slicing away chunks of backstory, re-writing chapters, cutting and polishing, polishing and cutting. I’m sure you know by now this is not my favorite part of the writing process, no matter how necessary. However, I have learned a few things over the years, from other authors and Read more
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Rejections: the other half of pursuing a writing career
Once upon a time I had a great story concept. I was so excited about it I queried before I’d even finished the first draft (cue cringes from all writers reading this). It was, in fact, so good that I got two agent responses. One that said “I’d love to get your query when this Read more
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When a story writes itself
I have spent many nights glaring at a computer screen typing and deleting the same paragraph, willing my characters to move, trying to force a story to happen. Every writer has. When it happens, sometimes you might be lucky and some read-overs can compel your hands, or a google search can make the story lurch Read more
LC W. Allingham 