"This was a nice town before the blacks took over." I heard this phrase more times than I can count growing up in the southern United States. As a kid, I didn't think much about it. As an educated adult, I'm appalled. Crime statistics are quoted repeatedly to justify the use of this phrase, and… Continue reading Systemic Racism and White Ignorance: a Deep-Seated Coexistence
You've worked diligently on your manuscript for months, maybe years, every word is where it should be, all of your scenes written perfectly to tell the tale. Right? Wrong. As you go back through to tighten up your book, it's natural to find a few things that don't flow. Maybe an idea you weaved in… Continue reading Content – When To Cut
Inkitt, the online publishing platform where authors can upload their book and get readers, reviews, and feedback for free! Inkitt might even offer you a publishing deal if it looks like it has best seller potential--based off of reader analytics collected every time your readers click on your book. It sounds amazing. So how is… Continue reading Revisiting Inkitt
The greatest literary works are drowning in dialogue tags, but a lot of authors today are ditching them where ever they can. Why? Shouldn't we follow the example of the greats? It depends. To really understand why this norm has changed, you really need to understand the changing culture of reading as a pasttime. Books… Continue reading Dialogue Tags and Reading Culture
In Evolution of a Manuscript part 1, we discussed scribbling your first draft on the go with gmail (or anything else handy), and then transferring it to your computer to beef it up in your designated writing space. Now, the next step is to take that piece and edit, edit, edit, and edit again. In… Continue reading Evolution of a Manuscript: Part 2 – Microsoft Word to PDF
Welp, it's been a crazy couple of weeks, my kid has been home because the daycare is closed, and even though I've been home a lot this week too, I haven't been able to accomplish a whole lot story wise. I still haven't met my last goal. In fact, yesterday is the first day I've… Continue reading 2020 – Week 12 and Covid-19
I met my goal this week and tweaked my latest scene, chapter 7 scene 2 which is the subject of my "Evolution of a Scene" series, which you can read about here, and I also have my first draft of the next scene about 75% completed. I don't know if I want to tack this… Continue reading 2020 – Week 10 and Tailoring Chapter/Scene Length to your Audience
I'd like to take you through my iterations of a draft, from first conception to final product. I've chosen one paragraph to do this way and dissect--the opening of my latest scene as of 7 March 2020. Hopefully, you will come to the determination that the final draft is a good one, and one that… Continue reading Evolution of a Manuscript: Part 1 – On-the-Go Scribble to Writing Space
I did not meet my writing goal this week! Grr! I got about half of the scene tweaked, but not all of it, and no editing. So I'll be spending some time this week doing just that and hopefully moving on to the next scene. I had a critique meetup this past weekend and we… Continue reading 2020 – Week 9 and Using Music to Invoke Imagery
I exceeded my goal this week, tweaking my dream sequence and not only drafted the first paragraph of the next scene, but completed the draft, adding another 1041 words to my running total. My manuscript is now over 32,000 words. My goal for this week is to tweak the new scene, and run it through… Continue reading 2020 – Week 8
