“Practice drafts” are my least favorite thing about writing. It took me years to admit I sometimes need them, and longer still to actually implement them in any useful way, and I don’t use them very often even now. But when I need them, they’re really useful.
Read more →There are two basic kinds of stretchy writing projects: the deliberate ones and the accidental ones. The deliberate ones are, well, deliberate. The writer knows they have a weak spot, or a particular technique that they’ve never tried, so they deliberately design a project that’s going to
Read more →The longer (and to some extent, the more successfully) one has been writing, the easier it is to see that there are no rules or recipes. There is no “right answer” for most writing questions. There is only “a possible right answer for this story” or “an
Read more →Once again, it’s time for an Open Mike/Mic! Ask questions, complain about your vampire ducks or celebrate slaying them, or just grumble about the weather. Whatever you want.
Read more →Ages ago, when I had a day job, my department got sent to one of those “team building” workshops. The first exercise, oddly, was to write a description of one’s “ideal day” — that impossible normal day when everything went perfectly all day long. When some of
Read more →Another question: I can do my own voice, or a child’s voice. That’s it. I have no idea how to figure out how another character would speak, especially someone who has a big speaking part. How do you improve at this? Is there a way to research
Read more →Writing is a complicated balancing act. It’s not just a two-factor problem—this much dialog versus that much action. It’s dialog balanced against action balanced against description balanced against characterization; pacing vs. clarity vs. structure vs. depth; outlining vs. drafting vs. revising. The thing about complicated balancing acts
Read more →What sort of difficulties do you run into during the wrap-up? I would expect it to be smooth sailing since you tend to know when to stop. -NcT2 First off, there are two things going on after the story climax: validation and wrap-up. They can happen simultaneously,
Read more →Open Mike Question: How do you deal with the waiting period after you submit to agents? I just finished my first book and sent it out to a handful of agents, and I can’t help thinking about it and waiting and wondering all the time, but there’s
Read more →“The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas and only keep the good ones.” – Linus Pauling I love that quote—it applies to so many things besides ideas—but it begs the question: how can you tell which ones are the good
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