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Character Revision: 8 Ways to Jumpstart a Make Over You have a first draft, but you realize that your character needs work. How do you retrofit a character when you revise? I don’t think of a personality transplant. Instead, I try to add to and enrich a character. Here are 8 suggestions on how to [...]
As I’m working on the plan for this new novel, creating characters and trying out voices, I’m trying to strengthen my weakest areas. My Weakness is Character My weakness is character. I can plot fine, but creating characters with plausible character growth is hard for me. I think I’ve got it and my friends tell [...]
4 Stages of Character Development When you write a first draft, there are really two novels at that point. There’s the one on the paper and there’s the one in your head and they are not the same. I know this. But I’m experiencing it again as I’m working through this revision. In order to [...]
I’m worried. :-/ Are my characters boring? One-Note Characters One common difficulty is to create characters with a wide range of emotions. Yes, your character may be chronically sad or mad; but
My Plotting is Messy This week, we’ve discusses 9 ways to plot. So, how do I plot? Basic story line. Two of these are probably worthless for me:
What Age Do you Have to Be to Write a Novel? The question of the perfect age to write a novel comes up sometimes when I do school visits. Too young? At what age are you too young to write a novel and have it published? I’ve seen a 13 year old published and published [...]
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. After yesterday’s [...]
Transitions: Filling in the Time Line I’m at a tricky place in my revision where I need a good transition. There’s a time gap. Certain events need to take place in late October and November, but I’m at about the 4th of July on the story’s time line. I need to get on with the [...]
Last week, I asked how you measure the progress of revising your novel, or of a writing session. Here’s the results: Word Count and Page Count Indicate Progress Word Count edges out Page Count by one vote. It seems the ease of counting words with word processors has made Word Count one of the easiest [...]
Re-Reading: The Basic Revision Strategy I’m always amazed at how much the revision process depends on re-reading what you wrote. It’s an obvious statement, of course. Yet, when I ask people about their revision process, re-reading is seldom mentioned. It’s one of those assumed things. Suggestions for Re-reading to Re-envision Re-read an entire section, not [...]
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