The gentle nudging of a friend of mine has landed me smack dab in the middle of my novel. Editing. You might not have known this before now, but I have been secretly avoiding that task by doing important things like setting up this blog, watching and chatting (only a little! Really!) with writers on Twitter, reading through the articles they’re recommending, doing research, doing laundry, cleaning my keyboard… One of those articles I read got me a little excited. I wish I could recall where I saw it, but the author was clearly stalking looking over my shoulder as I was […]
A Little Ruminating… and the Monday Mashup
I have been reading a ton – a ton – of great articles by blogging authors and writers. I am caught between excitement for all of this great information and encouragement, and Brain Overload. Experts claim that you should read as much as you write, and that you should plan your course of action. Clearly, I am going to have to make a new plan, because I’ve been caught up almost entirely in reading. I need a schedule – not that I stick to schedules particularly well, but they do help me control my tendency to wander. Sometimes. Sort of… […]
Do Your Characters Have Character?
Character creation — and development — is probably one of my favorite aspects of writing fiction, and I’m not talking about how tall or short, muscular or rotund, striking or unlovely an individual might look. Bogging down an introduction with a catalog of a character’s features is distracting; it focuses the reader’s attention on them rather than drawing him to look deeper, though looks do not, in most cases, make or break a story. While looks can help to give some hints about a person or help to give them color in our imaginations, it is the qualities distinctive to an […]
Hello, and Welcome!
I’m so glad you found your way here to my blog! By way of introduction, I am a writer, and I have Big Plans. (What writer doesn’t, eh?) I have been writing for my whole life, and the Peanut Gallery (a.k.a. those who have read my works) has advised me repeatedly and emphatically that I should be published. Again. I was once! But once was apparently not enough and clearly did not garner enough attention. Coincidentally, I would also like to be published (again.) One of my short stories appeared in the Alternate Realities e-Zine, which sadly looks to be […]