[Spoiler-free review]
I saw Rogue One on Saturday morning with Present Wife. I have been excited for this film ever since it was first announced shortly after the release of The Force Awakens last year. It was amazing. Continue reading “ROGUE ONE Re-Affirms Disney’s Commitment to STAR WARS”
NaNo 2016 got off to a less-than-stellar start for me. For a variety of reasons, not the least of which was the shock induced by the presidential election, I was not focused on writing my second novel, The Warden of Everfeld: Legacy. Part of me feels like I’m jumping ahead too much, considering my first significant round of revisions looms for part one, The Warden of EVerfeld: Memento.
I tend to second-guess myself in such ways. The point is, I haven’t advanced WoEL much beyond the 5,000 words I covered over the first eight days or so. Instead of wallowing in my own thought process, I decided to change focus. Continue reading “Writing Lesson #64: World-Building Offers Many Avenues of Storytelling — Use Them”
My outlining has really taken off in earnest this week. I definitely have some big revisions in mind for The Warden of Everfeld: Memento, and dropping the synopsis on this site a couple days ago was invigorating. However, I’ve decided to let the alpha manuscript of WoEM (mostly) sit tight through National Novel Writing Month so I can focus on other aspects of my grand writing scheme. Continue reading “Friday Write-Day: The Joys of World-Building”
I’ve finally finished my first read-through of Manuscript: Alpha. I should have finished weeks ago, but the last 40 or so pages were difficult to get through. I rushed writing the ending simply because I wanted to finish the first draft, and boy does it show. There are probably more spelling errors in those sections than in the entire rest of the book, not to mention several glaring plot-holes. I’d like to apologize publicly to my alpha readers for that. Just know that it was infinitely more tortuous for me because I wrote it 🙂 Continue reading “Friday Write-Day: NaNo Prep Begins in Earnest!”
So I’m pretty sure I mentioned last week that I’m working on a short story to submit to an online litmag contest this month. Right? Yes, here!
Five on the Fifth‘s submission deadline for their short fiction contest is looming rather large on August 31. I currently have about 1,500 words of a first draft, with a pretty clear idea of how I will set up the final act and conclude the story. I think my submission will end up finishing around 2,500 words, but I’ve been known to miscalculate projected word counts in the past. Continue reading “Short Story Update – The Deadline is Coming!”
Lesson #37 from finishing my first manuscript: Try to find that balance.
Accomplishing anything effectively is about balance. Finishing the first draft of The Warden of Everfeld: Memento over the last few months was a bit tiresome. I had not met my monthly writing goals since the end of NaNoWriMo 2015, and I was constantly falling behind – according to my own exceedingly high standards. I just wanted it done, but I didn’t always have the motivation or the willpower to just sit down and write.
Continue reading “Writing Lesson #37: Writing Consistently is about Balance”
Well, it is actually finished now, at least for the current moment. Manuscript: Alpha has been revised, printed, bound, and sent off to my four lovely, devoted, selfless alpha readers. 176,000 words, plus a glossary, and a crudely drawn map to guide their mental wanderings as they read. Continue reading “Manuscript: Alpha is a Go – and it has a title!”
Looking at that picture, most people would hear the water chiming over stones and logs, or imagine the animals that may be hidden behind that line of trees. I look at this picture and imagine the mountain spring that flows down into this river, or the wide expanse of the forest. Continue reading “Creativity Sessions: Not Seeing the Trees for the Forest”
I’ve been reading much more than writing in recent weeks. Now I’m starting to realize that my extensive reading was too deeply affecting how I was thinking about my writing. Continue reading “Creativity Sessions: Is Narrative Limitless?”
Writing 50,000 words in the span of one month sounds crazy to me. That means writing, on average, 1,667 words per day, which doesn’t sound daunting, but really is because I have to actually come up with 1,667 things to say every day.
Context? Yes, that might be helpful. Continue reading “My Novel Idea – NaNoWriMo”
Evening Satellite Publishing 