Now that I’ve eliminated my intrusive voice, coaxed the plots and subplots to play nicely together, gotten control of pacing, and overcome my hesitance with love scenes, it’s time to complete the set of revision artifacts (outline and scene notes) for moving the plots toward their climaxes. I was very excited about getting to this […]
Update, 2/23/2011: You’ll see that I have cancelled the Kickstarter “Launching Sparks” project. Though there is only one public backer, I’ve gotten the support that I need. My experience is atypical and I can’t draw any inference from it to help future authors. I can, however, point you to this article by Monica O’Brien.—————————————————–This post […]
My biggest nemesis – the love scene. I interrupted my progress this week, working myself into a snit about it. The way my story is written, the scenes have to be hot and passionate; expressing the love between two strong, independent people. The problem? I’m not that into sex. Let me clarify – I’m not that […]
Flying down the freeway one cool June morning, we laughed and talked, enjoying each other’s company. It was my first trip through the mountains to his favorite beach. He decided to take the scenic route and turned off onto a beautifully picturesque two lane road. It was charming – until we reached the mountains. Far […]
It was one of the nights that I spend with other parents who have also accompanied their children to ballet classes. Sometimes there’s conversation, sometimes we’ve brought something to work on, sometimes both. For me, it’s always both – I try never to ignore a nice chunk of writing time. A new gentleman struck up […]
Zipping merrily along through my revision outline; making great progress. In the zone, every thought had a home. And then…I rounded a blind curve and had to skid to a brain locking stop. Hit an obstacle. Makes me crazy when that happens. Actually, the obstacle was an event. I had shown it from the heroine’s […]
Yes – I know it’s customary to count down to the new year, and no – I’m not counting the wrong way. I’m saying goodbye to 2010, – or as I’ve come to think of it – my year zero; and saying hello to my year one. It will be my ferst furst first full year […]
I’m tackling a thorough revision of my debut novel, and have been developing the revision outline since mid-November. It’s a scene-by-scene revision of a 400 page manuscript – and it’s my first. So naturally, completing the outline is taking longer than I planned. ROW80 is the perfect challenge to keep me mindful of the finish line. So […]
During revision, silkscreening is one thing; constructing a scene is quite another. The complexity of my current WIP makes the process more an intricate choreography than a construction. We know that the basis of scene choreography is the Holy Quarternary of writing – goal, obstacle, action and resolution. In my particular case, many scenes in the story also […]
Something challenged me last Friday. Well, that’s probably an understatement. It actually brought out the worst in me. I’m pressuring myself to meet a self-imposed deadline. I flew into a snit and ultimately stomped away from my desk, banging the door shut behind me. Making matters worse, I’d forgotten that L was at school, and […]
