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Writing during the Christmas holidays can be difficult. There’s too much to do, too much living to do! Here are some simple low-stress projects to keep you going. Just have fun with these! Show-Don’t-Tell with Sensory Go sit at a mall, beside a seasonal skating rink, at a holiday concert. Notice the sensory details of [...]
Debut Novel: Spreadsheets Used for Plotting and Revising a Novel Introduced first in 2007, debut children’s authors have formed a cooperative effort to market their books. I featured Revision Stories from the Classes of 2k8 and 2k9 and this feature returns this year with the Class of 2k11. Class of 2008 Class of 2009 MORE [...]
Replace Abstractions with Concrete Detail! Guest post by Geoff Herbach Introduced first in 2007, debut children’s authors have formed a cooperative effort to market their books. I featured Revision Stories from the Classes of 2k8 and 2k9 and this feature returns this year with the Class of 2k11. Class of 2008 Class of 2009 MORE [...]
Setting: “Where am I? And why should I care?” Readers ask these two questions at the beginning of every story. We often focus on the second question, how to hook a reader. But orienting the reader is just as important. They need to know the setting: this is a wider question than just the geographic [...]
Develop Your Character Inside and Outside I’m working on a revision of an older story and am finding that my character is flat, lacking emotion. Here’s what should happen: action, reaction, thought and/or emotion. Here’s what is happening: action, reaction. Of course, there’s lots of variation and times when either might be appropriate. But overwhelming, [...]
When you revise your novel or story do you look at what you wrote before or start totally from scratch? Revise Previous Text Usually, I’ll work with the text that I already have written. The idea here is that I’m close, but it isn’t quite there yet. In this case, I’m refining the text and [...]
Guest blogger, Joni Sensel writes about cutting her story so much that two books became one. I read an ARC of this new book and loved it — the novel revisions worked! Why Cut Out Important Parts of a Novel? Originally I thought my new middle-grade adventure, THE FARWALKER’S QUEST, would be two books of [...]
Criteria for choosing scenes to include in your novel:
Western Washington SCBWI Retreat: Voice The retreat was great. There were about 40-45 people there and they were split into two groups. Group A came to me, while Group B went to Patti Gauch, then we swapped for the same presentation again. I sorta knew how Patti would approach voice (and I might have done [...]
NaNoWriMo is in full swing! That means over 50,000 writers are slugging out 50,000 words, working on the first draft of a novel, in the 30 days of November. But I’m thinking ahead to December when that first rough draft needs revision. Here are 3 things to keep in mind as you’re writing that first [...]
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