a little fantasy * a little sci fi * a little love
This week I'll be sharing notes from a workshop on editing between drafts. Over the last two weeks I've been going through my first writer's notebook and rediscovering my musings on improving my manuscripts, and sharing dot points from seminars I attended on writing. Today's blog is a hybrid of the two from an author …
Continue reading "Looking back at my Writer’s Notebook – Part Three"
Do you round up your chapters or add a cliff hanger? This was a question posed by someone using the #writingcommunity hashtag on Twitter. My answer is that I initially rounded up chapters until an editor made me stop. Her reasoning was that if you round up your chapters into neatly self contained stories, then a …
One WIP has been submitted, one is on the back-burner and one I've just started plotting. I'm taking my time with this. With my other two works in progress I found I plotted too quickly, then went back and tried to expand them. One of them paces well, so I changed my mind and submitted …
I'm currently working on the second draft of my fantasy novel, Winter Masquerade. As I'm ironing out its shortcomings I'm finding the problems are the same as I originally faced with my first novel, Drama Queens with Love Scenes. At the moment my new work is novella length and I've been trying to find ways …
Continue reading "Everything old is new again, in my writing."
A friend of a friend came up with the perfect title. That was five years ago and I've come up with several story lines that suit this title. One was an epic tale of a young married couple that takes place over several decades. They would become friends with their neighbours, and after the husband …
These days, that's more that I usually do. But this manuscript is special. This story, The Midnight Man, took me a year to finally start as I was revisiting my earlier works for a new publisher at the time I came up with this story. And while I'm more efficient in my writing these days, …
Perhaps 'agonise' is too strong a word. You see, I've gone back to work on the fifth draft of The Midnight Man, a novel I need to get right. I haven't been this obsessed with perfection since my first book. It's currently novella length and tells the story of Stan, a middle aged man in an …
My religion has changed a little. I used to be a devout Plotter. My love for working out what would happen chapter by chapter happened with my second novel, Drama Queens and Adult Themes. Two worlds are described in that story and characters from one realm, the Afterlife, interfere with the lives of an unsuspecting …
Something has changed in my approach to writing. Or perhaps it's just a change for the book I'm currently working on. I usually meticulously plot chapter by chapter, but for the sequel to Social Media Central, that's not the case. Maybe it's because it needs twists and turns as its a dystopian thriller. It's better …
I've often blogged about my favourite editor, Mary Belk. She was assigned to my first novel and totally helped me re-imagine it. But I realised something the other day. I have no idea what she looks or sounds like. That's not unusual as I have the same relationship with my current editor, Jason. I wanted …
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