Fiction Notes

Tag: writing

  • Facing the Kickstarter Fears: Take a Risk

    Guest post by Deb Lund Most of you know me as the author of rollicking rhyming romps like my dinobooks, Dinosoaring, and Monsters on Machines, but preparing for a retreat with Darcy forced me to finally complete a first draft of an upper middle-grade historical fantasy. But kidlit isn’t where my writing started. My writing…

  • Writing Out of Sequence

    An odd thing is happening on my current WIP: I am writing the story out of order. Here’s the process for this story–which will change, of course, for the next story. Jot down rough ideas for the story. This project is book 3 in a series, so I knew the characters and setting. I just…

  • I Don’t Want an Honest Critique

    Fear No, don’t tell me what’s wrong with this novel. I don’t want to hear it. Minor problems? OK, I’ll fix those. But major structural, plot or character problems? Don’t tell me. Cynthia Ozick says, “Writing is essentially an act of courage.” When I get an honest critique, my courage fails me. I fear the…

  • What Next? 15 Questions to Help you Decide Your Next Writing Project

    I was lucky enough to get an Advanced Reader Copy of Chip and Dan Heath’s new book, DECISIVE: How to make better choices in Life and Work. You may know the Heath brothers from their previous books, SWITCH: How to Change Things When Change is Hard and MADE TO STICK: Why Some Ideas Survive and…

  • 12 Perfect Gifts for Writers in 2012

    For the holiday season, I am asking people what Writerly Things would you buy if someone gave you $1000. Here are my suggestions for some Writerly Things. I think you’ll still have some change left over for a cup of coffee! I recently attended the Arkansas Reading Association convention and met Newbery Honor winner (x…

  • Revision Disturbs our Emotional Core

    Guest post by Carrie A. Pearson To research this post, I Googled “revision in writing” which generated about 50,600,000 results in 0.36 seconds. Really? 50,600,000 results on this topic in less than a second? Why is everyone interested in revision? I have an answer: because it is so darn hard. But why? Is it because…