helping writers write more
30
Jan
I
am in the final (relative term) edit stage of WIP #1. I thought I’d be done sooner than this, partly because I am getting tired of working on this one story and want to move on, and partly because I didn’t know what else to do to it!
So when Kitty suggested we meet for [...]
29
Jan
Intro note: Sadly, this is Jordan’s last scheduled blog with Routines for Writers. What an informative month we’ve had picking her brain about how to improve our writing craft, particularly in the context of scenes! Thank you so much, Jordan! I’ve enjoyed getting to know you through your book, these blogs, and the emails we’ve sent back and forth. [...]
28
Jan
The more we blog about our routines, the more Stephanie and Shonna and I realize how different we are! I am sooo not like Stephanie! LOL! Yes, sometimes I get caught up in the 80 directions a story could go if I let my imagination run wild. But I’m too much of a control freak [...]
27
Jan
Due to unforeseen circumstances, Jordan Rosenfeld’s final blog in our current series on Craft/Editing will be posted on Thursday.
I’ll take this spot today to plug our next exciting series: February is Author Crush Month! Stephanie, Kitty, and I are busy lining up some of the authors we admire to blog about their own routines this [...]
26
Jan
Final edits? What are they? That sounds so . . . final. For me nothing is final. LOL
Actually, I do realize at some point the story needs to be declared finished. Knowing I’ve reached that time is very hard for me. That is why I’ve [...]
23
Jan
Two weeks ago when we were talking about the “big picture” Jordan Rosenfeld talked about taking a plot inventory to get a handle on what you have written. So I made a chart using headings that I’ve gathered from a bunch of sources:
(Set your page to horizontal and write these headings at the top of [...]
21
Jan
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, if you read my post from last week “Digging for Characters,” well… second verse, same as the first.
When it comes to plot – whether coming up with the first draft, or going through it in revision – it needs to resonate with me, with my values [...]
20
Jan
In the competitive world of writing programs and the marketing end of publishing, plot-driven writing, often referred to by the glib word ‘commercial’—as if it is designed to sell you something—is sneered at. Literary writing—where ontological investigations of the self and existence flow out of characters in lyrical prose—is the glowing standard to which all [...]
19
Jan
We are on our 3rd week looking at the craft of writing. This week we are supposed to discuss plot. Plot is something I struggle with. I write my characters so they learn and grow, make friends and fall in love and do all sorts of exciting things. But it becomes [...]
16
Jan
One of my dreams as an author is to create a beloved character. My own Anne Shirley or Nancy Drew. A Sara Crewe or Laura Ingalls.
My all-time favorite story character is Anne Shirley. One summer when I was eight years old, bored and sitting on a yellow plastic deck chair by the pool, my [...]