Tag Archives: writing
On “casting” while you write. Or not.
When I first started out in this biz, I heard a lot of writers talking about “casting” their books, and researching for visuals (typically actors, but not always) as part of their research prep. And this struck me as strange (then again, I don’t create playlists for projects, either. So I may be an outlier.) [...]
Don’t Know, Can’t Care
Yesterday, someone asked me what the on-spec manuscript I’ve been working on, was. My answer: a story. No, they said, what kind of story? With words, and characters, and Stuff Happening and their world changing, even if The World doesn’t change for them. But what genre? they insisted. Is it fantasy? SF? YA? Mainstream? Is [...]
BOOM
Sometimes, you sort of muddle along and figure out a character as you go. And sometimes, it hits you like a clue-by-four, right between the eyes. Working on [project name redacted] yesterday, I took a Tumblr break to rest my brain, and was handed the visual* that will be [character name redacted] for my entire damned life. [...]
If you ever want to make a writer go all verklempt…
Send them an email like this: Your endings, why they always please me. You don’t wrap everything in a neat package. You leave things for the reader to think about and work at, you let the reader be involved. Thats what I loved about the end of Vineart…..As a reader I hate packaged endings- nothing [...]
Occasionally, The Writer Writes
I’m still waiting on revision notes for SOUL OF FIRE, and I’m not scheduled to start on G&T #3 until 1 March, so I’ve been working on New Project #2, also known for now as The Left Hand. (or, “the book NOT called TDW”) So today I pulled up my Big Writer Pants and sent the first [...]
A Reminder (for you, and for them, and for me)
“How do I do this? How do YOU do this? How does it get done, this book-writing, storytelling thing? I keep starting and stopping, getting distracted, getting bored, getting broken…. what’s the secret?” The following paragraph has long resided in the sidebar of my Livejournal blog. Some days (weeks, months, years) it’s useful to shake [...]
Day Twelve of the Year-End Project
Chapter Five was a bear to write, mainly because there’s a massive amount of delicate worldbuilding here — too much, and it comes across as a Tract, too little, and the reader becomes lost in unfamiliar territory. A lot of movement, covering ground (heh) and launching the story into a new direction. And this is [...]
Days Ten and Eleven of the Year-End Project…
Day Ten Basically, yesterday I was rewriting chapter 4 from the ground up, and swearing because I really need to do some on-site research for certain details (Google Maps only goes so far, even now), and I stupidly set one particular important element somewhere I haven’t spent a lot of time and…argh. When I’m writing [...]
Days six through nine of the Year-End Project
Internet continues to be unreliable, making for late posts. And we shall not speak of Cablevision’s decision to cancel my service call without checking to see if I still needed it…. Cranky writer is cranky, as there’s stuff I need to research/sites I need to check… A long post, catching us up. Day Six: Realized [...]
Day Four and Day Five of the Year-End Project
Merry Christmas, to all who observe/celebrate/enjoy! Combining two days of work into one post, for brevity’s sake. Chapter Two was more of a bear than I had expected – this is where I am wading into unfamiliar waters, both in setting and time, and the characters are a reach for me. Finding something in [...]
