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I mentioned (I think) that I’m working on a new manuscript. I’ve got several characters roughly sketched and about 35 pages of backstory (the setup for the now) written. I love this part, where there’s still so many things to do, and you can just pick and choose. Should I develop the characters more? Should I research jobs? Draw my town? Find pictures of their apartment? Jot down scene ideas? Writing a novel is such a long and difficult process (duh), that I love the parts where it feels like you’re so on top of it, and options are limitless. It’s a lot better thanRead More →

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I guess every writer ever in the history of ever has been asked this question: where do you get your ideas from? And I’d say there are a dozen dozen (this sounds weird, I mean like 1212=8916100448256, okay?) answers for each individual writer. So I’m just going to talk about how I’ve been struck with inspiration. The biggest place ideas come from are my dreams. No, really. And then they grow and change and turn into something completely different, but they start in my sleep. And they’re not dreams, like how you’re still in grade school, and you just realized that you don’t have yourRead More →

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Today I’m linking to an article by Julie Leto about Layering When You Write. This article was a lifesaver for me when I first started writing.  This is how I write.  And I thought I was doing it wrong. See, I can whip out the dialogue.  And dialogue is crucial.  It keeps the pace, it raises tension, it adds emotion, it… well, dialogue can do anything.  It’s like the superhero of writing.  Then it starts getting harder.  I usually write in the action, trying to see the scene like watching a movie.  This works, but it leaves me with a bunch of dialogue, a bitRead More →

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Those Rules, the capital R ones, can stifle a young writer (and by young I mean novice).  You can spend so much time on your first draft making sure that you don’t overuse adverbs, use correct grammar, don’t head hop, include enough description–augh, the list is endless.  You can spend so much time following all of those Rules that you don’t give yourself permission to write badly.  But I promise you this, if you don’t let yourself just freaking write, you will never find your voice. Let your characters say what they need to say.  Infodump if you have to.  That’s right.  I went there. Read More →

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A section on writing tools is really incomplete without an article on the Alphasmart Neo.  Pros, as I understand them (I don’t have one): You can’t self-edit, because you only see “two through six lines of text”. It is very easy to transfer over to a word document, almost magically easy.  See the site for details. Includes spell check, for, you know, people who need those sort of things. It’s portable like crazy. The cons? Cost prohibitive, for some (like me), at the sale price of $219. As of 6.30.11, the price is $169. That is all.  Make up your own mind.  Feel free toRead More →

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But I promised to discuss the work I’ve been doing on the new WIP and knowing the places in the work. I made a map of the town a month ago and it helped immensely. My heroine grew up in a house, moved into a house she called “the mausoleum” at eighteen when she got married, moved into a tiny apartment at 18 when she got divorced, and finally ended up living above a dance studio in a three bedroom apartment she renovated. Important things happened to her–turning points in her life, if not the story–in these places. I need to see them. I triedRead More →

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Bitch, Ok!  Just Say No. In my last writing post, I listed five ideas to write without sitting down and staring at that damned blinking cursor that smirks quietly at you from the top of the page.  However, those suggestions assumed you had extra time and / or money.  So the last five will focus on what you can do with a crazy life and making an average writer’s wage. (I also explained how I bastardized BICHOK into… Bitch, OK. I’m not proud of it.) Five More Ways Take a notebook and write a scene.  I don’t care about details or where they are or whoRead More →

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No Bitch, Ok! For Me. There’s a great story behind why I made this list. Also, the whole Bitch, Ok! thing will make more sense. You can read it by expanding the section below or just go straight to the list. [dropdown_box expand_text=”The Story” show_more=”Read” show_less=”Lose” start=”hide”]I got a new car.  It has an MP3 player.  I missed that.  275 songs.  1 disc.  I heart you, technology. So, last week, for the first time (for some crazy reason) I was actually alone.  For several hours.  In my car.  With the Mp3s.  And the characters in my head.  In my imagination.  Except it’s not really quite your imaginationRead More →

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I decided to take my idea and run with it.  It ended up being more than a sentence.  But definitely no more than blurbs.  I’m too close to it right now to see if there’s anything useful there, but I promised to share, so here it is.Read More →

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I am going to share with you my greatest writing tool, the thing that keeps me sane in the crazy made-up world in my head.  Behold, the Scene Tracker.  (Please note: This is an excel file.  It was virus free when it left my computer, but because I don’t want any mean emails, etc., you are downloading at your own risk, I make no guarantees as to how it will affect your computer). Now that I’ve scared the crap out of you and you probably wouldn’t download it if I paid you, we’ll discuss it’s merits.  Here is an actual image of mine from myRead More →