the care and feeding of your muse

Just My Novel’s Word Cloud

03.03.2011
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I think I need to look into the gratuitous overuse of “Just”.

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Tagged as: because we all need a way to waste an hour, inappropriately amusing, romance novels, the care and feeding of your muse

The Kernel Idea–Not Popocorn

02.06.2011

I’m linking to this blog post from Bob Mayer because it explains the kernel idea perfectly and since this post is pretty much what made it click for me. I thought, I can’t do this.  I’m just 2 weeks in the outlining, charactering, plotting phase, and still–it’s not going to happen.  But, as writers, we [...]

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Tagged as: craft, i'd recommend, process, the care and feeding of your muse

Research Help

01.20.2011

I’m doing some research for a character (or two) with psychic abilities. I’m just trying to find out different kinds of abilities, maybe some ‘my experiences as a psychic’, etc. I’m open, right now, to just about anything. Would appreciate links or book suggestions. Thanks!

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Tagged as: the care and feeding of your muse

When You Hit a Writing Wall

03.15.2010
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I’ve really been struggling lately with process.  I’ve come to a dead end and, it occurred to me, it’s not the story.  It’s how I’m getting the story out.  I always considered myself a planner (vs. a pantser) but it occurred to me when I was actually writing five page descriptions of my heroine’s apartment [...]

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Tagged as: process, rules bad, the care and feeding of your muse, writing past the fear

They Don’t Call It the Sagging Middle for Nothing

03.03.2010

So I’m a third to a half of the way through my manuscript and oh. my. God. I knew the beginning.  I had so much to write, to get all these threads and storylines moving.  I had to write and then condense and rewrite just to make sure I could get in everything important without [...]

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Tagged as: craft, process, the care and feeding of your muse, writing articles, writing past the fear

Ruth Fowler: You Want My Opinion? Never. Write. Again.

02.22.2010

Writing is an affliction, a disease of the soul, a rewiring in the head, like Asperger’s or some other form of autism. Like masturbation, it’s an uncontrollable and compulsive urge. It’s an obsession, a need, a drive. It’s not fun, and rewarding, and entertaining. It’s like having a bad movie play in loop in your [...]

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Tagged as: quotes, the care and feeding of your muse, ventastic

Writing Isn’t a Game

02.08.2010

Writing is entirely too hard to not take seriously.  Like the decision to go on living, the decision to decide between life and quality of life, writing is a choice.  It’s not something we’re called to (though it may call to us, like the siren); it’s not something you do halfway, because maybe you can [...]

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Tagged as: because we all need a way to waste an hour, i'd recommend, online aids, the care and feeding of your muse, writing past the fear

The Gift

01.06.2010

Find out the reason that commands you to write; see whether it has spread its roots into the very depth of your heart; confess to yourself you would have to die if you were forbidden to write. ~Rainer Maria Rilke via Quotegarden.com (which  no longer seems to exist). Writing makes me crazy.  One minute I [...]

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Tagged as: personal, the care and feeding of your muse, writing past the fear

Extra Life

01.05.2010

I often feel sorry for people who don’t read good books; they are missing a chance to lead an extra life. ~ Scott Corbett ~

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Tagged as: all writers are readers, quotes, the care and feeding of your muse

New Year Resolutions Are Evil

01.01.2010
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New Year’s Day: Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual. ~Mark Twain via Quotegarden.com (which no longer seems to exist). I don’t believe in New Year’s resolutions.  I think it presumes one is somehow failing already.  Which, I suppose, [...]

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Tagged as: personal, quotes, the care and feeding of your muse, writing past the fear

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