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Does Your Scene Pivot: Creating Turning Points
I’m revising my WIP novel one scene at a time and finding places where I need to do lots of work. Specifically, I want scenes that pivot. A scene is self-contained section of the story. Characters come into a scene with a goal and they either reach their goal or not. The scene should have […]
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The Heart of Revision: Finding Your Own Answers
I’ve written before about revising based on critiques and editorial letters covering both the emotional upheaval and the how-tos. Revise Second Draft: 419 Specific Comments Do you get MAD at Editors? I Do Don’t Follow That Revision Letter: Here’s Why To Revise or Not to Revise: Who are you revising for? DECISIONS: What and How […]
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Whole Novel Critiques: Because It’s Easy to Write a Chapter, but Hard to Write a Novel
Last month, I taught a Novel Revision Retreat at the Rolling Ridge Conference Center in North Andover, MA (see the photo album on Facebook), and I was reminded of the need for your critiquers to read your entire manuscript. Writing a chapter is easy. Really. Critiquing a single chapter tells you little about the story […]
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Off-Stage Scenes Rarely Work – Unless You Are Scarlett
Here’s a common problem that I see in first drafts: the main action has happened off-stage. Think about Scarlett O’Hara and the other southern women sitting at home waiting; in an attempt to avenge his wife, Frank and the Ku Klux Klan raid the shanty town whereupon Frank is shot dead. But the raid takes […]
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Major v. Minor Revisions: The Surprising Relationship between Draft #1 and Draft #2
When you revise, do you do minor surgery or major surgery on your novel? Most of us revise multiple times, but some revisions are bigger than others. I believe in making incremental changes, that is, getting it mostly right and then doing a series of tweaks. The change isn’t huge, but the results are important. […]
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Feedback: What a Critique Group can Do for Your Story–And It’s MORE than You think!
Our local critique group met yesterday and it was an exciting meeting. Almost everyone sent the first chapter of a new project. That’s exciting. It means that the group is healthy, that we are collectively working hard on our stories. Critiquing Manuscripts I learn almost as much when I critique manuscripts, as when I get […]