Fiction Notes

Featured Post

Invite Darcy to Speak

Darcy speaks at retreats, conferences, schools, special events and more. Watch this video about her Novel Revision Retreat, then read more about how to invite her to speak.

Asides

• Shrunken Manuscript Technique Helps Visualize Problems Following my directions for shrinking, marking and evaluating a novel, here are some recent examples: (more...) #
• I saw my first Droid this weekend, the new competitor for the iPhone. It had an ebook app and I was amazed at how easy it was to read on the Droid. I expected it to be tedious, hard to distinguish the small letters, etc. Surprisingly, it was clear, the fonts were nice and easy to read and there was a nice enough amount of text on one screen that I wasn't totally frustrated. I still like the netbook screen better for reading, but the Droid was surprisingly nice. I'll have to read The Wayfinder on it and see what I think. (more...) #
• 2009: How did Fiction Notes do this year? Please answer at least one of these questions in the comment section or email me at darcy at darcypattison dot com. Even a short yes or no would be helpful in making this a better blog. Did you find information and encouragement on Fiction Notes that helped you in your writing? What was your favorite writing tip of the year, whether you saw it here or elsewhere? What writing, marketing or publishing question would you most like answers to this year? How likely are you to send someone to read a post on Fiction Notes? Very likely, somewhat likely, not likely. (Hey, it's OK to say Not Likely! It will tell me that I need to do a better job!) #
• Each year Writer's Digest names the "101 Best Websites" for writers. You'll see this notice everywhere for the next few days, because the deadline for nominations is January 1, 2010. While I hope you'll nominate Fiction Notes, you might also want to stop by Alltop list of writing related blogs and take a fresh look around; I've found some interesting blogs that I've missed before. Send your nomination to WD at writersdig@fwpubs.com with “101 Best Websites” in the subject line by January 1, 2010. #
• What Problems Have you Had this Year? What kinds of problems have you had this year with your writing or your writing career? What are the most annoying problems? What are the most persistent problems? Getting a critique, negotiating a contract, online marketing, characterization, plotting, keeping alive the hope, finding a new market? What's your year been like? #
• What Kind of Successes have YOU had This Year? What kind of successes have you had this year? What is your biggest accomplishment for the year? Why this one? What kind of year was 2009 for you? #
• Thanks to all who sent me notes of sympathy or encouragement on the loss of my mother last week. There were too many to respond to each personally, but I want you to know how much it meant to me. Thanks. #
• "In baseball, you only get thre swings and you're out. In rewriting, you get almost as many swings as you want and you kno, sooner or later, you'll hit the ball." -- Neil Simon, playwright #
• LibreDigital reports that readers are more likely to buy a book after reading a sample chapter. Other highlights of the online book browsing trends are reported, too. Who spends more time browsing for books on line: men or women? Most popular genre browsed? Average time spent browsing? Where do younger readers browse? #
• Have you seen the Spoof on a Marketing Plan by Ellis Weiner in the October 19, 2009 issue of New Yorker? Among other tidbits: "If you already have a blog, make sure you spray-feed your URL in niblets open-face to the skein. We like Reddit bites (they're better than Delicious), because they max out the wiki snarls of RSS feeds, which means less jamming at the Google scaffold." Read the rest of this hilarious (and oh, too true) spoof. #