writing
To the New Novelist:
Sometimes I hear from old friends or former students who are working on their first novels. They wonder if we could meet up for a cup of coffee to talk about the writing process and publishing, and I’m always delighted to reconnect. To be honest, I’m touched that they thought of me, sometimes after a separation of years, and it’s so cool to talk with such a friend about how fascinating and frightening it is to write. I become inspired by his or her determination, especially if… Continue reading
Draft 13 and the Crunch Schedule
Draft 13, Track Changes. No page is untouched.
Since my first editor originally told me that the manuscript for my new novel was due to go to copyedits last October, and my second editor told me in early November not to worry about deadlines and take my time rewriting the last act of the novel, (about 130 pages), I assumed that my book had been bumped a season to 2015. Season bumps have happened to me before, so I didn’t think much about it.
Then, in mid-January, when I… Continue reading
Playing and Puzzling in 1st Person
Perspective Matters
A lot of current YA lit is written in 1st person and present tense for good reason. Immediacy is created when we’re living the story minute-by-minute, straight through the thought process of a teen protagonist. Best of all, knowing how she thinks helps us readers to know her well. When we can experience her fears, humor, and loneliness right along with her, it’s easy to sympathize with her.… Continue reading
Progress
If you’ve driven on a road trip, you know the calculation of time into mileage. A minute equals a mile. An hour on the freeway will take you sixty miles, and a day will take you four hundred miles or more. It’s a fair exchange of time for distance. That’s progress.
For writing a novel, I wish I could say that time transformed into pages, and pages added up to chapters, and enough chapters made a book. It doesn’t feel that way to me, though,… Continue reading
The Setting Can Match the Action, or Not
All it takes is a foggy, unexpectedly warm morning in January to transform the world into something magical and full of mystery. We’re intensely sensitive to real-life settings and the moods they create, so it makes sense to use them carefully in our fiction writing, too.
Consider how a setting can support or contrast with the action of its scene. If a character learns on a Ferris Wheel that his girlfriend loves him, the setting piles happiness on happiness. If he finds out she cheated on him,… Continue reading
To Write or Shop. That Is the Question.
I have family, and needless to say, I love them. We are fast approaching the time of year when we express our love for people most obviously by producing gifts under a decorated tree. The tradition stretches back through ages of deep and silly happiness, year after year, so I’m not giving it up.
It means I need to shop, as in: it is a true project with a deadline. Since zillions of others need to shop, too, I get this sense of frenzy out there, this… Continue reading