writing
Turning Corners
We head toward summer.
Our day and night times are both 12 hours today, and spring starts at 6:45, though try telling the weather that. We’re expecting snow, as usual.
Still, I’m thinking warm, summery thoughts, and my novel has turned a corner, too. I can feel how the developing and exploring have brought me to this place, and taking the novel deeper is a new kind of right. Like, yes. At last. Now I can really get to work.
Happy spring.
Into the Roots
Roots. Marie Selby Botanical Gardens.
I’ve had emails lately from some of my writer friends where we’ve been discussing how important it is to be guided by character when writing a novel. Character, absolutely, is what draws me into projects I’m writing and books I enjoy reading, but characters aren’t going anywhere without a good plot, too.
I’d like to throw it out there that developing character can be a trap, much like the intricacies of small scale editing can be a trap to those of us who love tinkering… Continue reading
Writing Risks
A conversation with my editor opened up my novel again, so I’m playing with ideas and first-drafting new scenes once more. It feels like I’m stepping into a wobbly canoe that might get sucked towards a waterfall. Part of me longs to stay on shore where I can tinker with other sections of the novel that are further along, but I can’t have a whole book until I manage these plot holes properly.
All writing feels risky, but sometimes it’s hard to tell if the risk is based on… Continue reading
Embracing Winter
One of my favorite concept movies is Groundhog Day, when Bill Murray keeps waking up in the same day, over and over. He starts out as a jerk and gradually practices becoming nicer and more genuine as the days repeat. He saves people and learns to play the piano, improving himself until finally the spell is broken.
It’s snowing again.
This winter has a similar feel, with repeating days of snow and routine that are hard to distinguish, one from the next. When I glance up out of my… Continue reading
A Blizzard, a Q&A, and Revising
Maybe it’s because of my Minnesotan roots, or because we don’t get huge snowfalls too often in Connecticut, but I like shoveling. Give me a big, two-foot dumping of snow and a decent shovel, and I’m at it. I’m a machine, a mole, a survivor. I like separating off the top layer in one stroke, and the crunchy, digging noise of scraping sidewalk with the second stroke. I like throwing the white stuff in piles that grow ridiculously high and impressing myself with how strong and industrious I am.
When… Continue reading
Going Places
Seville
As the cold settles in around my ankles, it’s nice to have an armchair and a computer to transport me far away. One of the deepest pleasures of writing is the escapism it provides, especially when a story takes me somewhere nice. When I wrote The Vault of Dreamers, I purposely gave the story many sunny days to counterbalance the nights of tension, and I enjoyed the view of the prairie in the fall, with the wind rippling the grasses and the towers of the Forge School standing… Continue reading