Writing has many different feels. Sometimes your head is really in the scene, you’re part of the story, and the words are just descriptions of what you experience as you live the story. Other times the writing is pieced together over time, in different sittings, and you scratch and claw it together. ~ I finally completed a short story that I started last spring, something that I felt close to, […]
Feeling the rough edges of a first draft
Sequel finished
So, another NaNoWriMo has come and gone. Win number three, with plenty of days to spare. After the plot difficulties and working to find the answers that I mentioned in the previous post, things came together. I fought my way through to a reasonable plot. Then, once I came to the point where I had “all the holes plugged” in my middle so that the ending would work, I tried […]
The plot is taking over the novel!
As I write, we’re at day 14 of NaNoWriMo. My pace is fine, but there has been quite a bit of frustration for me. This is a sequel, and, if I had to force it into a genre, it’s strongest fit would be as a mystery. When I wrote the first one, I had no plans for sequel; though one of my readers wanted one I had no idea what […]
Prepping NaNo 2012: How traits present, and Listing moments
As I write, the date is September 24, 2012, and I have just spent the last hour burning with material for NaNoWriMo 2012. Ideas are just popping out and I’m throwing them down in a private blog post for future reference. This will be NaNoWriMo V for me. I’m planning a sequel to my 2011 3DayNovel story that has grown from 23,500 words into what is now a 60,000 word […]
Just writing moments; Doing the 3 Day Novel
Over the September long weekend I did the 3 Day Novel. I don’t want to write about that experience so much (though if you write fiction and have never tried it, give it a go!) but I went through a new, for me, writing experience in the process. I was uncertain about participating in the competition because 1) I had been struggling to write lately, and 2) I had no […]
Using alternatives for ‘said’
When you’re writing, do you use ‘said’ over and over, or do you go for variety by looking for alternatives? I had an internet discussion with a fellow writer (who turned out to be fifteen years old, the relevance of which I’ll get to in a moment). He argued that ‘said’ is a bland, weak word and that I should be using stronger alternatives. I argued that ‘said’ and ‘asked’ […]
Shout out: Listthings
I have to give a shoutout to a great free website called Listthings. Listthings is a site that allows you to write virtual sticky notes. They are automatically saved for you. You can move them, re-size them, select colors for them, and share the entire list if you want some help to brainstorm your ideas. I’m working on restructuring half my novel. I had visions of covering my wall with […]
“and the waiter asked if we needed a refill …”
A writing craft technique has appeared on my radar. When building a scene you need characters and a setting. Plot is nice too. But often in a scene, especially one with heavy or important dialogue, the characters and dialogue will take over. As a writer you get into the scene, feeling the emotions, focusing on the back and forth, pulling the characters’ backstories and agendas over your own head like […]
Review and thoughts: The Surrendered
I’ve been doing a lot of reading lately and not much writing. One of the recent reads is “The Surrendered” by Chang-rae Lee. As is always the case, I’m writing about it not for a scholarly review but to note “writerly” aspects that I’ve thought about. A little prior to this I read Murakami and with his novels I am aware that he is writing in Japanese and the writing […]
Reading, rather than writing
I’ve been a little annoyed / concerned about my lack of writing over the past few months, but then I realized that I’ve been doing a lot of reading. Since mid-December I started getting interested in downloadable audiobooks and then ebooks from my local public library. Audiobooks: Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures, Vincent Lam The Bishop’s Man, Linden MacIntyre The Lost Symbol, Dan Brown The Affair, Jack Reacher Series, Book 16, […]