Sketching, the “saggy middle” and The Winged Pen
Today, I’m over at The Winged Pen’s Master Your Craft blog post series. What–you ask–is Master Your Craft? Each Wednesday, the Winged Pen discusses prewriting and drafting a new book from the BIG IDEA to QUERYING. (Handy list of Master Your Craft topics so far.) My post is about that devious stretch of story landscape […]
Persistence and the artistic dream in SOMEDAY, SOMEDAY, MAYBE by Lauren Graham
Someday, Someday, Maybe by Lauren Graham is a charming and funny story of a young woman pursuing an artistic dream. I usually write about middle grade, young adult books, or writing craft books on this blog, but this story of a young woman pursuing the acting dream has lots of parallels with the writing life. […]
Looking in from the outside: Megan Whalen Turner’s The Queen’s Thief series
Thick as Thieves came out in 2017 (Yay! I read it twice in a row!) and I’ve been enjoying re-reading Megan Whalen Turner’s The Queen’s Thief series. She’s making me think about the story from an outsider’s perspective. Megan Whalen Turner’s beloved Eugenides character is showcased in a way that reminds me of Dorothy Dunnett’s […]
Does your Work-in-Progress need a Canalmaster?
Construction machines are wasted without a little child to sit in a lawn chair and appreciate the show. This last week, I kept a list of the noisy machines that distracted me *cough* from my revision work. I didn’t get a picture of the asphalt saw that cut a square hole in the street or […]
Tame Your Revision Step-By-Step: 4 Cycle Engine for Your Story
TAME YOUR REVISION with this series that started over at The Winged Pen. You can read the overview, find the links to all the posts, and download the infographic here.
Tame Your Revision Step-by-Step: 4 Steps to SORT-BY-SIZE
This TAME YOUR REVISION series started over at The Winged Pen. Here are links to the individual posts: Inventory Slice and Label With Scrivener Throw Stuff Out–There’s no separate post for this one. Everything I have to say is on the infographic. 🙂 Feedback Folder Sort By Size Re-Cycle Desperate Measures You can download the […]
Tame Your Revision Step-by-Step: 4 Ways to INVENTORY
This TAME YOUR REVISION series started over at The Winged Pen. Here are links to the individual posts: Inventory Slice and Label With Scrivener Throw Stuff Out–There’s no separate post for this one. Everything I have to say is on the infographic. 🙂 Feedback Folder Sort By Size Re-Cycle Desperate Measures You can download the […]
Contrast with Apple Blossoms, Bach, and Story
These blossoms and buds look like visual staccato and legato notes. Short, sharp. Open, sweet. Sometimes learning something that you had given up on changes your whole view of the world. James Rhodes’ How to Play Piano teaches rank beginners how to play J.S. Bach’s Prelude in C Major. I never learned to read the […]
Tame your revision Step-by-Step: 5+ DESPERATE MEASURES
Revising a novel is a form of bookkeeping. How do you keep from losing your mind? At The Winged Pen, we’re talking Revision. This post is part of a TAME YOUR REVISION series that started over at The Winged Pen. Here are links to the individual posts: Inventory Slice and Label With Scrivener Throw Stuff […]
Tame Your Revision Step-by-Step: 7 Simple Steps to a FEEDBACK FOLDER in Scrivener
One of the problems with getting feedback on your manuscript is overwhelm. If you’ve got five Word documents floating on your computer somewhere, it can bring your revision process to standstill. This post is about the simple way I keep track of valuable feedback from my critique partners. This TAME YOUR REVISION series started over […]
Tame Your Revision Step-by-Step: SLICE AND LABEL with Scrivener
Revising a novel is a form of bookkeeping. How do you keep from losing your mind? This TAME YOUR REVISION series started over at The Winged Pen. Here are links to the individual posts: Inventory Slice and Label With Scrivener Throw Stuff Out–There’s no separate post for this one. Everything I have to say is […]
Tools: Emotional Connection in Fiction Part 2
A piano with built-in toolboxes for sewing and putting on make-up. Andreas Landschütz, 1820. MAKK museum in Cologne. © Laurel Decher, 2017. Last week I wrote about the challenges of making your reader feel the emotions of your main character. This week, the thrilling conclusion. Challenging feedback doesn’t have to derail your writing. I’ve got […]