writer at play
Posted in writing process on Aug 28th, 2010
Two nights ago I sat down to begin my typein (yay!). I brought out my scene cards, my story notebook, my story binder, and the first chapter of my marked-up ms. After looking at the sorry state of my worldbuilding notes—loose sheets of paper higgledy-piggledy crammed into my binder, scribbled lines amidst the plot details [...]
Posted in quartz, random, writing process on Aug 18th, 2010
Dear Brain, I’m very appreciative of the fact that you took time out of your busy schedule to plot out the last three scenes of Quartz for me. I thank you for all of the cool new insights into the magic system and the nifty little plot details you put in. I’m also really grateful [...]
Posted in Uncategorized, writing process on Aug 12th, 2010
Talk about being on opposite sides of the spectrum!: Does rewriting make your story better or worse? Me, I fall somewhere in the middle. My first drafts are me trying to tell the story to myself. They’re the place where I can spend pages describing a forest scene, leap without any thought for logic or [...]
Posted in motivation, writing process on Jul 7th, 2010
It is HOT in here. Muggy hot. Stuffy hot from drawn shades and closed windows. Outside, it’s my-steering-wheel-is-going-to-burn-my-hands and the-pavement’s-going-to-melt and the-metal-is-going-to-take-off-my-skin HOT. Yes, folks, we’re having a heat wave of temps in the mid-90s up here in Vermont. I’ll wait while all you Florida and Arizona and other southern state people stop laughing. Remember, [...]
Posted in challenges, writing process on Jun 12th, 2010
I usually take summer off from serious writing, probably because seventeen years of schooling has ingrained in me the sanctity of summer vacations. This year, though, I hit the actual revising part of HTRYN at the beginning of June. Yes, folks, all of what I’ve been doing since January(!) has been prep work for this. [...]
Posted in writing process on Jun 1st, 2010
Line-editing comes easily to me. I can spend hours tweaking sentences, polishing description, making dialog snappier. All of which is akin to lovingly smoothing on the wallpaper while the roof leaks, the furnace belches carbon monoxide and a colony of rabid bats has taken residence in the attic. It’s harder to see the overall arc [...]
Posted in writing process on Apr 20th, 2010
I haven’t written a lick of original fiction since–*squints into the misty past*–I worked on Rainbird last fall (*gasp*!). This year, I’ve funneled all my storytelling efforts into revising Quartz using the HTRYN course, and diligently beat down any other contenders for my writing time with a big thick stick. I blame spring for what [...]
Posted in reading, writing process on Mar 9th, 2010
Here at the playground, I spent a couple of posts talking about that bane of my writing life–coming up with titles! Since I want that process to be less painful with more satisfying results, I went through my booklists to find templates or formulae for titles. First off, we have the one-word titles. These include [...]
Posted in writing process on Feb 22nd, 2010
It’s been a lot of fun to read how titles fit into everyone’s writing process. No matter where you are on the spectrum, it’s a great feeling to have picked out the right title for your story. Here are a few of my favorites, from my own stories: 1. Out of Shape, because it fits [...]
Posted in writing process on Feb 21st, 2010
I suck at titles. Once in a while, titles leap fully-formed from my head with accompanying stories (Out of Shape and Second Sight being two) but mostly, coming up with a title is a hard slog. You can see my lack in the entitling department in my lackluster novel names: The Changeling (boring), Season of [...]