Last night, I asked a friend if he hated my novel. To set this up, it was the one friend who isn’t in my writing group. I sent my MS to him weeks ago and he avoided talking about it. To me, that meant I was getting Ghost Read (my term for that phenomenon when... Continue Reading →
Process in Progress #5 (continued) – I Realized What Was Slowing Down My Edits: Me
Okay. I promise that I’m not stressed out. Edits didn’t go poorly. But they didn’t go poorly because I had a breakthrough . . . that took extremely long to hit me. “If you edit something for long enough, it stops getting better—it just starts getting different.” I don’t remember who told me that. Someone... Continue Reading →
Process in Progress #5 – I Need to Figure Out My Editing Process
Things That Happened While My Back Was Busted: I watched The Princess Bride, and in doing so discovered that . . . holy shit, Inigo Montoya is really the protagonist of that story. Like, the Han Solo factor of “Why am I not following this guy the whole time?” couples so strongly with his arc... Continue Reading →
Process in Progress #4 – The “Promises Tally” Run
Hello! It’s been a crazy week for me writing-wise. The last time I talked about my outlining process specifically, I explained that I had a hyper detailed system for laying out my stories before writing them. This post is about how I tweaked that outlining system this week. And how it was super satisfying. If... Continue Reading →
Process in Progress #3 – My Villain Isn’t Palpatine (and, Seriously, Thank God)
I had to do my taxes this week. They just got away from me. I was definitely spoiled last year, able to get to them at the point I naturally would have (in June), so when I learned that they were due earlier this year, my brain just kept hearing "Not yet though," until days... Continue Reading →
Process in Progress #2 – The Character Wall
Hi there. I had a bunch of things I wanted to write about today, and, in choosing one, I wound up shooting wa-a-a-a-ay over the typical release deadline. Apologies for that. But I didn't want to publish another life update. And I didn't want to vent about my presence on social media either (which I'm... Continue Reading →
Process in Progress #1 – The “Promises Outline”
My process has always been manic. It's 2010 and I'm a plotter, 'cause that's obviously the way to go! My first novel was a mess even though I outlined it, but that's only true because I wasn't thorough enough. "Thorough in what way?" you ask? Why, thorough with my characters' micro-expressions, of course! This new... Continue Reading →
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