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Turning Out Words: Productivity
My life is full. And I don’t want it any other way. I’m blessed to have such a rich, varied and full life. But, oh! Life is full! And I need to get writing done. I recently read a great book on productivity. Now, don’t let it scare you away, because it’s called, 2K to […]
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My 4000 Word Day: Prewriting
Last Friday, I wrote 4000 new words on my WIP novel. That’s a great day for me. But it was only possible because Thursday was a planning day. When I work with students and teachers, I encourage lots of prewriting. My book, Writing for the Common Core, is essentially a book of prewriting activities. Here’s […]
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No Words on the Page, But I’m Still Writing
Today, there are no words on the page that I can point to and say, “I wrote that today.” But it was still a successful writing day. I reread the first book of a series and got the voice and characters back in my head. In the early stages of prewriting, I need to see […]
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To Tell or Not? Silence is Golden?
When you’re writing do you tell people what your working on or not? When I teach narrative writing, I often ask students to do prewriting activities that involve oral storytelling. Students tell about something that has actually happened to them. It’s helpful to do this because you can orally narrow down a topic, rehearse details, […]
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Rich Prewriting Enhances Novel
Rich Prewriting Enhances Novel I’m currently researching material for my novel. Setting. I’ve sort of settled on a setting; often for me, the setting comes first. I’m looking at sequences of events, variations on those sequences, variations in how the setting might look at different times, some of the odd-ball jobs in this setting, etc. […]
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4 Manuscripts That Should Stay in Your Drawer
Private v. Public Stories: When to Hold Back We’re talking about those old files, old stories, old passions that are hidden in your file drawer. Here are four manuscripts that should stay in your drawer. Your first manuscript. No, you are not allowed to air your first attempts at writing fiction to the world. No. […]