Monthly Archives: March 2010

Fessing up

March 30, 2010 – 10:28 am

Last Saturday there was a meeting of the local Mythopoeic Society, at which they planned to discuss Thirteenth Child. They very kindly asked me to attend, and spent considerable time arranging to have the meeting on a date when I was sure I could make it. And I spaced it. I have a list of excuses [...]

By pcwrede | Posted in General, Writing | Tagged , , , | Comments (5)

All together at once

March 26, 2010 – 8:26 am

Writing is difficult to talk about. I mean the real thing, the stuff that happens when you are sitting there with your paper and pen or your computer or your stone tablets and chisel and telling a story. We talk about bits and pieces of writing all the time. We separate out plot, characterization, setting, [...]

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Underneath it all

March 22, 2010 – 8:31 am

Theme is something I’ve been thinking about for years, because it’s one of those writing things that I can’t seem to ever quite grasp when it comes to my own writing process. Thanks to my excellent high school English teachers, I can pick out and analyze themes in other people’s stuff, but I never quite get [...]

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Not according to plan

March 19, 2010 – 9:57 am

So I’m working along, facing my third deadline extension, way behind on everything, with lots of vital-or-at-least-urgent non-writing stuff going on. I FINALLY get past the exceedingly sticky argument scene I’ve been poking at for the last two months, and on into the next bit of wandering-around-the-settlements. I’ve done the go-to-dinner-and-whine thing several times, and [...]

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Day Jobs

March 15, 2010 – 8:23 am

People make time for the things they love. That is why I am always a bit skeptical at first when people tell me that they can’t write because they have a day job…especially when their day job is a relatively non-demanding 40 hours per week. People have to make time for the things they love, [...]

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So the next thing that happens is…

March 12, 2010 – 10:23 am

As I said in our last exciting episode, there are two kinds of novel outlines writers do:  the sort meant to sell a manuscript to a publisher, and the sort meant to help the writer write the book. This post is about the second kind. The first and possibly most important thing to know about [...]

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A Line Around the Outer Edge

March 7, 2010 – 10:33 am

“Outline – 1) A line showing the shape or boundary of something; 2) A statement or summary of the chief facts about something; 3) A sketch containing lines but no shading” – Oxford American Dictionary If you want to be a professional novelist, odds are that sooner or later, you’re going to write an outline. [...]

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Nothing’s sure but…

March 3, 2010 – 9:27 am

This is the time of year when I run across folks – newly published writers, generally – who have forgotten one of the most basic facts about their writing careers, and who are about to pay a painful price. What fact? The fact that they’re running a business, and they’re going to have to pay taxes [...]

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