Hmmm… I’m having a hard time choosing the fate of a particular character. It isn’t that I’m overly fond of him; it’s just that I’m unsure which scenario best suits the story. If I murder him, then the heroine is left with an item she’s never seen before and a quest to unlock the mystery. […]
After struggling with the structure for my new book, I gave up. Yep – I did. Me, the incurable optimist. I waved the white flag, threw in the towel, and then I red read. Lots. And I’m the better for it. I have learned that I was having so much trouble with this new novel because […]
Consider a clear, still mountain pool. Beautiful, isnt it? A disturbance – maybe a passing automobile – causes a rock to slide down the mountain side, hit a ledge and bounce into the water. Immediately, there are easily discernible ripples from the point of impact. Now visualize that the pool has several waterfalls at one […]
Hello…hello…hellooo… Where are you…are you…yooou… Echoes resounded from the void in my timeline. I’d been so focused on tightly winding the action that I’d overlooked the leap from Sunday morning to Monday morning. Sunday afternoon and evening didn’t exist. Once I’d stumbled across the hole, I saw that it should have been painfully obvious. Having […]
November 16, 2010. The day I began the revision outline for the novel that is becoming Sparks. By the very next week I knew that while an outline is a must, it doesn’t give me the level of detail that I need. So I added a storyboard to my revision artifacts, and was still confident […]
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 […]
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 […]
I’m revising a WIP with complex story lines. Even so, my fear was that by now, my focus would be drawn away from the process. I expected that I would frantically be going after anything that looked like it could be a short project; something for easing the monotony of the revision process. Yes, I know it’s […]
I’m very excited. I’ve figured out how to make the sometimes revered, sometimes scorned, always discussed writer’s tool work for me. You know the one – the outline. I’d only begun using it because my editor advised that it was the next step for revising the story he’d critiqued. Now I’m outlining because it is […]
