Writing has gone considerably better this week. Even after altering and re-altering the background of one of my main characters and changing their scenes to fit those (re)-alterations, I managed to write 6,541 words this week for a total word count of 31,388. Continue reading “Friday Write-Day: Progressive Improvement”
Writing this week has been terribly slow. Work has been a bit more stressful than usual, sapping my mental energy by the time I get home, not to mention the (inevitably) last-minute preparations I have had to make for the holiday this weekend. Continue reading “Friday Write-Day: A Not-so-Short Novel”
Returning to draft,
reshaping an old story–
like seeing old friends.
Steve D
I published an earlier version of this article, “The Little People Matter Too!”, way back in 2014, but since it only has 15 total views, I’ve decided to revisit it and update it a bit. This was among my first “Creativity Sessions” pieces, and I think its themes still ring true as I begin exploring a new story this November. I wil post more of these re-hashes through NaNo 2016 (and likely beyond) with some new insights and thoughts to share.
As I discussed last Friday, I have entered NaNoWriMo 2016 with a much more solid foundation to begin a new novel. While WoE: Memento was largely experimental, with ideas and narrative points coming to me as I wrote, I have been much more structured in my approach to the follow-up novel, The Warden of Everfeld: Legacy. Continue reading “NaNo Re-Hash: The Little People Still Matter!”
I’ve been discussing the revision process for Manuscript: Alpha of The Warden of Everfeld: Memento since completing the first draft way back in July. (That really does feel so much longer ago than two months…)
Since my alpha readers are nearly finished with their reviews, and I am (basically) finished with my own first read-through, I thought I would share the actual questions I typed up for my alpha readers to answer. Continue reading “Creativity Sessions: Questions to Ask Your Alpha Readers”
Revising 12 pages minimum per day has been… more work than I had imagined. So far, I’ve done all right in revising The Warden of Everfeld: Memento — 98 pages in and about a day behind my pace to finish September 23, as planned. I hope to catch up and build a nice cushion for myself this weekend.
I suppose it should not be too surprising that revising a novel actually takes longer than just reading it. Continue reading “Friday Write-Day: Revisions Abound”
I forget sometimes that others can help pull you out of creative ruts. I’ve put a lot of pressure on myself to finish Manuscript: Alpha of “Jaed and Aston” this week, mostly by telling my alpha readers that I was almost done.
Then, I hit a narrative point that felt messy and too drawn out. I fussed over wording, I tried to find a shortcut (which I do not like admitting), I brainstormed a whole bunch. And then I happened upon an interview that gave me the jolt I needed. Continue reading “Creativity Sessions: Let Your Characters Write the Story”
Netflix’s original series Bloodline finally crossed my radar a few weeks ago when my sister was in town. I ended up watching about 4 episodes of the first season with her as she prepared for the release of season 2.
I re-watched season 1 in its entirety after she left, because I can’t just leave a story unfinished – that’s ludicrous! I’ve now started season 2, and I’m not sure if I’m going to finish it. Spoiler Alert – I’m going to discuss season 1’s events freely, but I’ll leave out season 2 since I’m only on episode 3 or 4.
Ugh. The tying down of plots and characters continues.
As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, part of the delay on finishing Manuscript 1 of “Jaed and Aston” has been in trying to parse out the finishing plot points for each of my characters. The biggest difficulty I’ve found in this process has been in fitting the final pieces for each character together concisely, without jamming too much info/action into one section. Continue reading “Actually Nearing the Finish Line”
I can’t believe November is over in 12 hours. It’s been a long month. I think I’ll have some real lessons to take away once I’ve verified my final word count tonight, but I’ll discuss those in a later post.
After five days of travel for Thanksgiving weekend, my word count sits at 46,628. Continue reading “NaNo Update: The End is Nigh!”
Evening Satellite Publishing 