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I plot. I spend weeks figuring out characters, locations, and flaws. And then I dig in deep. I plot my story out, by acts and beats, down to each and every scene of my story. And, sometimes, those scenes have beats and entire stretches of dialog in the notes. Thinking Through Our Fingers: In the Mind of an Outliner – Arcs and Structure. This is front loading a story with lots of work. I know this. But as a teacher, mom, wife, and all the other things, I realized I was doing more work trying to keep a story in my head than taking theRead More →

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This month has been spent in revision hell. I’m revising two novels and trying very hard to get them ready for a March 31 submission. One is a hard deadline; the other is self-imposed (important if we ever want to get our stories out there–there’s always a reason to not be writing if we let there be). But there is no hell for the writer like Revision Hell. I currently reside on the seventh level, the ‘this book sucks’ level where plot points and dialogue I thought were so cool in the first draft now strike me as vapid globs of desperation. Oh lord, deliverRead More →

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I wanted to share my post from the HSG blog this month because it’s about writing accountability. I have quazillioned my output this year and if you want to do the same, go read my post! Writing AccountabilityRead More →

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One of THE best writing articles I’ve ever read: Simply put, in every social interaction, one person has (or attempts to have) more of a dominant role. Those in authority or those who want to exert authority use a collection of verbal and nonverbal cues to gain and maintain higher status. But it’s not just authority figures who do this. In daily life all of us are constantly adjusting and negotiating the amount of status we portray as we face different situations and interact with different people. Novelists have the daunting task of showing this dynamic of shifting submission and dominance through dialogue, posture, pauses,Read More →

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Alicia Rasley (blog) is a wildly talented writer and teacher who should get more recognition than she does. I bought her e-book in PDF, Discovering the Story Within, before people were even reading e-books. (My only complaint: it’s full of awesome worksheets, but the PDF is protected against copying, pasting, highlighting–anything you right-click to do, so filling them out in a word-processing program is impossible.) Plotting But, for today, and for GMC month, I’d like to point you to an article she did on her site called Plotting Without Fears. In this article she tells you the quick and dirty way to plot a story. FindRead More →

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Coming back from a writing dead-end; deadly writing sins; another reason to make your non-writer friends question your sanity; when a crit group sucks the life from your story; incredible writing resource you should already be using, slacker.Read More →

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Your characters are fighting, when they’re not headhopping. Creativity scares you. Using your own goals to build character and how to make writing a second book easier than the first. Especially since the first will drive you c-r-a-z-y.Read More →

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How to write women if you aren’t one, the best movies about writers, and famous writers get their revenge by noting how many rejections they received.Read More →

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I was right. Also, a whole bunch of info on how you’re querying and storytelling: you’re doing it wrong. Well, maybe not you. But a lot of people are. And, how will I know if he really loves me…. no, wait. That’s Whitney Houston. How will I know if I found the right person to critique my writing? Better.Read More →

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Busy week, so a little light on links today. But, bonus! I’m going to share more info on each link. You’re welcome. And through the wonders of the Wordpress, I am away at a training as this post goes live. In fact, I’m probably in class right now. Technology is kind of bad ass.Read More →