Oct 10
In her book The Plot Whisperer,
The climatic scene directly answers the question at the outset of the novel—will the protagonist reach her goal and be victorious?
Alderson says, “A writer who has not experienced a transformation in her own life often cannot see, feel, touch, smell and hear the scene depicting such a moment for the protagonist.” Read more
Learn about Margaret Atwood’s creative process in the 4-minute video below. I love her metaphor of using a rolling barrage to help you write your novel. I’ve done this and it works!
In my last post, “How to make dry research fun,” I wrote about the research I’m doing for my current work-in-progress. I’m writing a story that contains fallen angels, demons, and even the greatest fallen angel of all time.
Part of my research involves reading current novels that contain this subject matter so I can see what’s out there and what’s been done (so I don’t repeat it). But this is not all or even the majority of my research. Most of my reading is of historical texts and references. I’m going back in time to find the “real” history of my characters and themes.
So why not just read what’s hot now? If I were writing a vampire novel, I’d want to read, among others, Stoker’s Dracula, Rice’s Interview with the Vampire, and Meyer’s Twilight (to see what all the fuss is about).
But if I only read these books, I’d be basing my knowledge on other author’s perceptions, themes, and ideas. Read more
I’m reading The History of the Devil and the Idea of Evil: From the Earliest Times to the Present Day
Yesterday, I made a breakthrough. I told myself I could not move off our front-yard swing (oh, darn!) until I’d read 100 pages. And, I told my obsessive-compulsive self that I didn’t have to read every single word.
It worked! I did read every word (OCD-self wins again) but, in the process of my game, I made another game of it: try to find an angle in all that history that interested me. About 80 pages in, I found it. I discovered what interested me most is not what the bible or other religious texts say about the devil himself but how religion through time has treated the concept of good and evil. Read more
Below are two blog posts I found particularly inspiring and enlightening in my writing life this week. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.
New York Times bestselling author Bob Mayer’s post from last year: Pay the Writer makes so much sense. He writes about how we teach others how to treat us. This is true whether you’re speaking at a writing conference or setting aside quiet time to write at home. The video by Harlan Ellison is a hoot.
From last month, a post by my blog partner, Carly Sandifer, about finding inspiration in a commencement speech given by author Neil Gaiman.
Enjoy!
“Start a story now before your mouth talks it away.”
I love this line from the blog of authors and writing mentors Robert Ray and Jack Remick. Sometimes, authors do talk too much about their works-in-progress. We talk about not having enough time to write. We talk about plot or character problems we’re having. We talk, talk, and talk until we’ve worn ourselves and our listeners out.
Not all talk is good therapy. Sometimes, silence really is best. We can talk away the energy of a project and talking can be a way of avoiding what we should really be doing–writing. When I start to fall into this trap, I think of the quote above. Read more
Writing a first draft is our opportunity as artists to follow the flow of our creativity, to let go and see where it takes us. Subsequent drafts are where we enter our editor mind and make sense of it all.
I do a lot of literary throat clearing in my first drafts. I used to worry about it and tried to fix it as I went, but I learned that was a waste of time. I learned some of what I’d written would be cut, so why waste time line-editing sentences before I’ve edited for plot or meaning?
When I am ready to examine my work at the sentence level, one thing I do is search for my throat-clearing words or phrases. These are empty or repetitious words that weaken my writing.
What I’ve noticed is they change over time. Evidently, I’m an evolutionary throat clearer. Read more
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