Process Category
Titles
Posted on September 5, 2020 Leave a Comment
I’ve been adding new classes to my Outschool listing, one of which is a critique group style class. This last Thursday was our first meeting. We wound up talking about titles. Well, titles are not my strong point. Many of my projects have gone through half as many titles as revisions–and I revise a lot. […]
Fine-tuning Revision
Posted on August 22, 2020 Leave a Comment
I’ve been working on revisions for my contemporary middle grade novel. I’ve never gotten into quite so much fine-tuning before. It’s a whole different thing. I had the scenes in order and the character arc pretty well figured out. But now, I had to go through and make sure all the emotions remained consistent. I […]
Intense Emotional Climax
Posted on June 9, 2014 Leave a Comment
Why are the intense emotional scenes such a challenge to write? I’m talking about climaxes. I spend the whole manuscript just trying to get to those intense scenes, but when I finally arrive, I find myself floundering around. The writing is often surface and too quick. A scene that should probably take several pages (since […]
Soundtrack to the Epic Novel
Posted on May 23, 2014 Leave a Comment
Okay, I confess, I have written songs for the Epic Novel, but just now, I’m talking about produced songs that make me think of the Epic Novel. Surprise! they are mostly rock. When I hear a song that evokes certain emotions or brings a character into focus, I file it away and eventually acquire it […]
Soundtrack to Writing
Posted on May 12, 2014 Leave a Comment
Often, I must write in silence. However, being by myself a lot, I need a little noise now and again. I will put on some background music when I’m revising, editing, or researching. Most often, I’ll put on my coffeeshop playlist (and sometimes make a mock latte to go with it 🙂 ). It contains […]
Running Commentary
Posted on April 14, 2014 Leave a Comment
Who else wants to include a commentary to every scene of their story? Things like, “Here’s what’s really going on.” and “That character is actually thinking this.” I want to do that all the time. I get so excited about background stuff and hidden emotions that I want to let the reader know. This desire […]
Different Parts of the Brain
Posted on August 16, 2013 Leave a Comment
Writing on paper really is different than writing on the computer. It uses a completely different part of my brain. When I realized I needed to back up a scene before starting the book (opening scene number twenty-three), I pushed the computer aside in favor of my pencil and notebook paper. It’s amazing how much […]
Place Holders
Posted on May 13, 2013 Leave a Comment
Sometimes, we can get on a roll with writing, work up a momentum. Stopping to look up a particular word or to write a detailed description can interrupt the momentum for me. So I use place holders. For words I am unsure of, I use underlining with a ?. Since I’m on a draft 542 […]
The Inbetween Scenes
Posted on April 15, 2013 Leave a Comment
It’s funny how things go not all the way I intended. All of my main climatic scenes, I plan out in my head weeks, months, even years before they ever make it to the page. I love writing those scenes. However, some of the most fun I have in writing is when I write the […]
Sick and SIC
Posted on April 12, 2013 Leave a Comment
Inspiration is wonderful. It motivates, it encourages, it deepens plot, story, character. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always come when we beckon. A couple weeks ago, I was sick. In a variety of ways. I had planned to spend the day catching up on housework and my to do list while carving out about two hours of […]
A. W. Downer 