Your Novel’s Welcome Mat: Intriguing Titles

Welcome Mat: Your Novel’s Title
When you are brainstorming titles, think of it as a welcome mat. A title’s job is to bring readers into your novel, story, or picture book. This is why the title is often changed by

Plot & Character

I’m starting a series of posts about plot this week – as requested. Thanks for popping in or sending me emails with your preference!
Plot and Character are Intertwined
Before I start talking about plot, I have to say something about characters, the people who will be DOING and REACTING to the plot. Obviously, they are intertwined. [...]

Revising in the Home Stretch

Revising in the Home Stretch
I know what method of working has made the first 2/3 of my mss better. I’m just getting tired.
Don’t get Lazy Now! I’m on the last third. I know that I must rewrite a major scene for a subplot/secondary character climax. But much of these later chapter are in good [...]

interior thoughts

Interior Thoughts Reveal Character
I spent time yesterday adding more interior thoughts to a character. My critiquers felt they needed to know the character better at this point in the story. I’ve done the requisite “Show, Don’t Tell,” but readers still felt they needed more to really know the character. What does she FEEL here? What [...]

Megan Crewe: 2K9

This entry is part 9 of 10 in the series 2k9
GIVE UP THE GHOST by Megan Crewe
Introduced first in 2007, debut children’s authors have formed a cooperative effort to market their books. Last year, I featured many of the Class of 2k8 on Revision Notes, as they told the stories of how 2k8 Novels Were [...]

Goal disaster in Novel Revision

A scene goal must have a showdown
I’m revising my WIP novel and I’m at the end of the first section of the story. In this section, my character lays out a specific goal, and of course,

Donna St. Cyr: 2k9 Debut Novelist

Introduced first in 2007, authors debuting children’s books have formed a cooperative effort to market their novels. Last year, I featured many of the stories of how the 2k8 Novels Were Revised. This is part of the ongoing stories from the Class of 2k9 authors and how they went about revising their novels.
From Creative Writing [...]

Humorous Look at Novel Revision

How to revise a novel and build a career as a noted author – a humorous look

Write the first draft of a novel. That should be easy.

Joelle Anthony

by Joelle Anthony
The guest post today is by Joelle Anthony, whose first novel will debut in Summer, 2010: Restoring Harmony (Putnam)
It’s always sad to me when a writer tells me that they really need to finish their novel so they can get an agent because they’ve been at this for a couple of years and [...]

Fresh eyes

How do you find fresh eyes to read through a manuscript?

Don’t claim it. One trick I’ve heard is to put another writer’s name on it and