Novel Writing Archives - Page 2 of 6

Link Round-up: Writing the Novel

While I'm teaching writing in Europe, I'm mining my eight years of articles on writing for you. Once a week I'm posting a link round-up on a certain subject. I'll also re-post an oldie but goodie in full on a different day. And I've got a couple of new posts scheduled for you as well. […]

Charlotte Rains Dixon 8 years ago

Novel Writing The Writing Life

Macaron Day (Or, Jour du Macaron)

So, last Friday, March 20 was Macaron Day worldwide. What is Macaron Day? It was started by the venerable Parisian baker Pierre Herme (his name has an accent mark, but I can never figure out how to do those) in 2006, and the way it works is simple: you drop into a bakery, donate money to […]

Charlotte Rains Dixon 8 years ago

Novel Writing

Finding the First Line of Your Novel

I’m looking for the first line of my novel, the one I’m currently rewriting. It’s funny, I have this unwarranted idea that the first line should spring, fully formed and perfect, into my mind and from there I will write the rest of the novel. This is not what has happened with this current novel. […]

Charlotte Rains Dixon 9 years ago12/29/2015

Novel Writing

Fast Drafting Fiction (Or Any Other Kind of Writing)

When last I communicated with you, I told how I was taking a hiatus to finish my novel. As my grandbabies would say, done! (This must be accompanied with both arms raised in the air.) I finished the first draft on August 31st, and seeing as how my goal was to complete it by the […]

Charlotte Rains Dixon 9 years ago11/03/2015

Novel Writing

Finishing My Novel

Today is Tuesday and I usually post. (I follow a loose, and I do mean loose, schedule of Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday posts.) I have a half-finished post about getting support, whether its for your writing or physical or emotional issues that I'm working on, but it is not resonating with me. And I just […]

Charlotte Rains Dixon 9 years ago11/06/2015

Book Review Novel Writing

Book Review: The Novel Writer’s Blueprint

I've got a new book for all you fledgling novel writers out there. It is called The Novel Writer's Blueprint: Start Writing Your Novel Today, by Kevin T. Johns. I discovered the book when Kevin emailed me a wonderful query asking if I'd be interested in reviewing it. Since I'd just published a rant […]

Charlotte Rains Dixon 9 years ago11/03/2015

Novel Writing Viewpoint

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Viewpoint But Were too Confused to Ask

This is the blog post on viewpoint I promised in my last post, wherein I talked about how I judged a writing contest and nearly all the entries had problems with sketchy world building and viewpoint. Getting viewpoint wrong sinks your manuscript from the get-go. Send an agent a story rife with viewpoint violations and […]

Charlotte Rains Dixon 9 years ago11/03/2015

Novel Writing

Building Your Fictional World

Recently, I was the judge in fiction-writing contest. My job was to review the finalists in the novel first chapter portion of the contest, and select the top four winners. It was fascinating because every entry had a good concept for a story. But. Every entry but one had viewpoint issues (a topic I'll address […]

Charlotte Rains Dixon 9 years ago11/03/2015

Nanowrimo Novel Writing

Novel Prep: The Master Timeline

You have two more days to write character dossiers, descriptions of locations, and figure out the plot. The rules of Nanowrimo state that you can do as much prep work as you like, so long as you don’t begin the actual writing of the novel until November 1.

Charlotte Rains Dixon 10 years ago11/03/2015

Novel Writing

Everything Is Perfect

I awoke at 2:45 A last night (this morning, actually). I lay there for a few minutes, wide awake. I tried not to panic about not sleeping. Because, the worst thing about not sleeping is the panic about it. My mind scrolled through what I had to do today and how bad it would be […]

Charlotte Rains Dixon 10 years ago11/03/2015

Charlotte Rains Dixon

Category: Novel Writing

Link Round-up: Writing the Novel

Macaron Day (Or, Jour du Macaron)

Finding the First Line of Your Novel

Fast Drafting Fiction (Or Any Other Kind of Writing)

Finishing My Novel

Book Review: The Novel Writer’s Blueprint

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Viewpoint But Were too Confused to Ask

Building Your Fictional World

Novel Prep: The Master Timeline

Everything Is Perfect

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