The other night, over a writer’s dinner, my friend Angie mentioned a writing tidbit she’d received from a class she’d taken with James N. Frey, of How to Write a Damn Good Novel fame. (Not the James Frey of A Million Little Pieces fame.) It was this: make your reader feel the emotion, not just your […]
Okay, I did it. I finished my rewrite and sent it off to my agent. And now let us all have a silent moment of prayer that this is the final version. Or at least close. If not, I’ll be hanging my head and reporting back to you. Finishing is a funny thing for me. […]
Does your writing show clearly defined arcs? In story, scene, and character? I spent last Saturday afternoon teaching about arc and it has gotten me thinking about it a lot. Whenever I teach, I do a lot of research to add onto what I already know. That research got me paying more attention to the […]
I’m going back through the second draft of my WIP novel, checking for places where I have to drop things in. Most of these are little things, like another mention of a physical object that figures in the plot (in this case, a necklace), or pumping up a description that didn’t get fully mounted on […]
The best way I can answer the question of the title is to tell you two stories, the stories of my two attempts to get a literary agent. Attempt to get an agent #1 The first story happened back around 2011-2012. I was seeking representation for my novel, Emma Jean’s Bad Behavior. Over the course […]
On my writing retreat last weekend, I reread my novel. Yeah, that’s right. The one I told everyone how terrible it was. How it needed major surgery. How it had plot holes so big you could drive a truck through them. How the characters were undeveloped. In re-reading it I found that all of the […]
I spent last weekend going through my novel, The Bonne Chance Bakery. My agent is about to submit it to some editors again and she suggested I might want to read through it. I hadn’t looked at it since last August, when I rewrote it. So I said, yeah, I’d take a glance. Geezus. I’m really […]
Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month) starts next Tuesday, November 1st. Are you ready? I did it a few years ago, resulting in an early draft of my novel, Emma Jean’s Bad Behavior. And I’m planning to do it again this year to knock out a draft of a romance novel I have in mind. I […]
You’ve revved up your brain, planted your butt in the chair, and now you’re ready to write. I sometimes envision this moment as that of a piano player: you place your fingers on the keys, expecting great music to pour forth….and nothing happens. You freeze. You don’t know what to write. Or the words won’t […]
I’m back. It didn’t seem like much of a hiatus, at least from this end. And I’m still not finished with the rewrite. But I’m making excellent progress and feel very good about it. (And, so you don’t think I’m all fakey optimistic, let me just remind you that I sat out most of July […]
