Cheryl Renee Herbsman: 2k9

This entry is part 5 of 10 in the series 2k9Introduced 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 [...]

Emotional Critiques

It’s well know that I don’t want an honest critique on my novels or picture books! But for some reason, people keep giving me exactly what I don’t want.
Conflicting Emotions of Receiving a Critique
Yesterday, when my local critique group talked about my latest picture book manuscript, three emotions held sway.

Embarrassment. I am always embarrassed [...]

5 Writing Tasks for Off Days

Ever have one of those off days? You don’t sleep and wake up grouchy. You’re half sick but not really sick enough to call it a sick day. You are just disgruntled and don’t know why.
5 Things to do on Off-Days
On those awful days, there are still tasks you can do to be a productive [...]

Fearless Writing #1

That first meeting, we were asked what challenges we face as writers, what burden we wanted lifted, what questions we wanted answered about our work.

Psychology of Revision: Perseverance

This entry is part 5 of 5 in the series Psychology of Revision5 Days on Psychology of Revising
For six years, I’ve taught the Novel Revision Retreat across the country and I’ve thought a lot about the psychological issues that writers face as they face the work of revising a novel. It’s interesting that most psychological [...]

Psychology of Revising: Gifted and Talented

This entry is part 4 of 5 in the series Psychology of Revision5 Days on Psychology of Revising
Hope
Fear and Humility, part 1
Fear and Humility, part 2
Gifted and Talented
Perseverance
Gifted and Talented
If you have finished a draft of a novel (however messy!), you are Gifted and Talented.
The fact that you are Gifted and Talented has an important [...]

Psychology of Revision: Fear and Humility, Part 2

This entry is part 3 of 5 in the series Psychology of Revision5 Days on Psychology of Revising
For six years, I’ve taught the Novel Revision Retreat across the country and I’ve thought a lot about the psychological issues that writers face as they face the work of revising a novel. It’s interesting that most psychological [...]

Psychology of Revision: Hope

Hope is the feeling that we are at the top of our game and building on this solid draft, we can accomplish something unique, special, earth-shattering.