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Posts Tagged ‘writing techniques’

Babies and Bathwater

Posted in Books, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , on 14 Jan 2014| 1 Comment »

Writing with Pen and PaperIf you don’t have one, you need one. In fact, you need several.

I’m talking about beta readers, those folks you lure/ wheedle/ cajole/ beg/ entrap into reading your baby, promising them anything from sex to chocolate to whisky—for the record, that last one is the coin of my realm—in order to get their input, their take, their particular and specific impressions.

This weekend, I received the draft copy of a new memoir from the talented, wry, and always engaging Todd Baker, whose first book, Ten Year Run: A Marathoning Memoir, I was lucky enough to beta-read. His new work, about his lifelong love of heavy metal music, promises to be a hell of a lot of fun, not to mention a good dose of humor in a difficult time.

I’m lucky, also, in that Todd is one of my beta readers. (more…)

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An Inconvenient Idea

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , on 30 Dec 2013| 6 Comments »

Stack of Books

It is an unfortunate truth that inspiration usually strikes when you are least able to act upon it. The perfect solution to your living room furniture arrangement comes when you are away on holiday. The critical piece of a work problem comes when you are in the shower.

Today, I got an idea for a new story fifteen minutes before I had to be at work.

I’d just spent the holiday week relaxing, watching movies, streaming a new (to us) series, cooking a big meal of crab cioppino for friends, and puttering in the garage. During that time, my writer’s mind was a blank (aside from pangs of guilt over not working on my novel).

All week, nothing, and then this morning, just as I was preparing to get up and get back to the work-a-day monkey-boy grunt-job, bam.

I hate that.

Excuse me while I scribble down some notes…

k

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Bad Juju

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , on 20 Nov 2013| 6 Comments »

TFL Problem

What do writers have in common with baseball players?

We’re incredibly superstitious.

A writer friend composes all her novels on this laptop. She sits on the couch, has the computer on her lap, and types away. It’s the way she works (and boy, does she work!) Well, one day her laptop was giving her problems and we all piped up with suggestions such as getting a USB keyboard, putting it up on a TV tray, or working on the other computer for a while, etc. These suggestions were all shot down because all of them messed with her successful method. She writes in a certain way and anything that is not that certain way is simply unacceptable.

I’m the same way. If anything isn’t the way that’s worked for me in the past, it’s simply unacceptable.

Hence, my current problem. (more…)

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Stoking the Fire

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , on 13 Nov 2013| 2 Comments »

Piazza

Pen has hit paper on The Wolf Tree.

Admittedly, it’s nothing to shout about. I’ve merely written and rewritten the opening line about two dozen times. We talked about opening lines a while back, and the decision I made then was to take more time working the opening line for this book. Well, I’ve been doing that.

Ever worked on a single sentence for three days? (more…)

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Once More, Unto the Breach

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , on 07 Nov 2013| Leave a Comment »

The Wolf Tree

Life has begun (touch wood) to settle. Crises have subsided. Daily dramas have diminished. The weather has turned cold and windy and wet, calming nerves and dampening temperaments.

Now it’s time to get back to work. The Wolf Tree is once more underway.

I’ve had a few days off this week, and First Reader and I have taken long walks in the blustery drear, kicking around ideas like the autumn leaves at our feet. I’ve worked on the timelines for the intertwined stories, settled on names for the major characters, and started to flesh out their personal histories.

(more…)

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Emily is GO for Launch

Posted in Books, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , on 17 Sep 2013| 7 Comments »

The Revitalization of EmilyWe are live. “The Revitalization of Emily” is live on Amazon, and available for Kindle readers and apps.

Formatting went well, but there’s one new lesson I learned. Fonts that work well on the printed page are often too big for the Kindles. I had a couple of iterations before the headers worked properly.

Overall, though, an easy process.

Some people wonder why I do this on Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) instead of iBooks or Smashwords or any of the several other venues open to short fiction works. They also wonder why I don’t put it up everywhere, simultaneously.

The main reason is one word: reach. (more…)

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Editing Weekend

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , on 16 Sep 2013| 2 Comments »

The Revitalization of EmilyI spent the weekend doing two things: trying to relax, and editing the novelette.

I succeeded in the latter.

Editing went well, both on the story and on the cover art.

Each editing pass revealed fewer errors–reaching zero by the fourth pass–and fewer lines that gave me pause. Eventually, in editing, I like to get to the point where for each possible change, I have to think, play it two or three ways, and then end up with a STET in the margin.

My last pass, I also took special note of the “said” use. They’re still there (despite my earlier efforts), but now each one that is in the story has been considered. If it’s there, I want it there, and I’m happy with that. (more…)

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