I’ve been trying to ignore life and just focus on drafting Book 2. I’m slowly figuring the story out, but there’s been much more thinking than actual writing. While brainstorming is very important, I know from experience that I make many more discoveries when I’m actually writing. So this is what I’ve been chanting to [...]
I’m back from vacation and trying to get back into the swing of life again. Drafting Book 2 has been a top priority, but it’s also been a challenge. Going from polishing a complete manuscript to starting a brand new one is always a little painful; everything I put down on the page seems terrible. [...]
I’ve been working on revising a tween novel for a while now. I feel like I’m getting really close to getting it right, but the one thing that simply will not come together is the timeline of the story. I’ve made things hard on myself by giving the character a deadline that she’s working towards. [...]
As I’ve been revising, I’ve been thinking a lot about making things big enough: making the embarrassing moments really embarrassing, and the horrible moments really horrible. The more heightened the scenes are, the more emotion will be involved for the character and for the reader. And trust me, you have a long way to go [...]
[I was really excited to be featured in my hometown newspaper recently. Go here if you'd like to check it out.] I’ve been working on revising a tween novel on and off for a while now. My main focus has been on character and pacing, but I had a realization the other night when I [...]
If you have a minute, swing by Emu’s Debuts where my awesome editor, Aubrey Poole, talks about the process of bringing UnFairy Tale to life! I haven’t done a WIP update in a while, mostly because I’ve been a bit stuck. But the past week I’ve managed to get back into the swing of things. [...]
I’m sure I’ve talked about this before, but I’ve been thinking a lot about it lately: an idea is not a story. An idea is the seed of a story, but it takes a lot of work to get that seed to bloom into something full and complete. Part of why this has been on [...]
The UnFairy Tale blog tour continues! Swing by Kris Asselin’s blog for her thoughts on the book. Not surprisingly, she particularly enjoyed my main character’s obsession with mini-golf. Okay, on to writing legacies. This is something I’ve been thinking about for a while now: what do I want my writing legacy to be? Since life [...]
[Note: Don't miss your chance to win a copy of Tess Hilmo's With a Name Like Love which I blogged about recently. The contest ends today at midnight!] Okay, first the good news. My author copies arrived yesterday! An entire box filled with my pretty shiny books! The dog and I both agreed that they [...]
I’ve been working 0n revising my Camp NaNo project, which has been a difficult feat so far. The character has been tricky to pin down, so I finally had to put the manuscript aside and do some free writing to try to get into her head more. I had her tell me about her goals [...]
