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Archive for the ‘Writing in General’ Category

Joe the Planner (I thought it was plumber…)

Posted in Writing in General, tagged , on June 11, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

I’ve been wasting loads of time trying the write “organically” and not planning my story. I finally sat down and started mapping each character’s arc and underlined where their parts were the most interesting. Now I’ve got several scenes to add and lots of junk to cut, junk that was sending me down the wrong [...]

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Character Intimacy

Posted in Writing in General, tagged , , on May 23, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

Creating characters and listening to them as I write their stories is one of my favorite parts of the writing process. But not every character feels as intimate as the next, which begs the question–why? Quite simply, underdeveloped backstory has not allowed me to discover what really ticks off my failing character. I have not [...]

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Feed Your Writing Soul

Posted in Writing in General, tagged , , on June 3, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

Today was supposed to be the last workshop for my group of middle school writers, but they insisted on a final meeting next week during the last week of school. Of course I said YES! They are doing a phenomenal job of writing and roundtable critiquing. Not that I expected anything less from them, but [...]

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And They’re Off

Posted in Writing in General on May 9, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

Finally! Copies of my latest edit on Treasure Hunter Tales: The Family Legend will be in the hands of critical readers this week. I’ve been editing intensely since October after receiving feedback from a literary agent and starting another critique group. I’m extremely excited about the improvements in my writing and in the story. Time for [...]

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Teens Writing Creatively

Posted in Writing in General, tagged , , on March 16, 2010 | 4 Comments »

So I wanted to give my students an opportunity that few have during middle school; the chance to learn the basics of fiction from someone who has penned a novel (or 2 in my case). I am far from an expert, but through my years of writing, editing, critiquing, reading novels, and reading about writing, [...]

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Manuscript Overhauled

Posted in Writing in General, tagged , , on December 26, 2009 | 7 Comments »

The major manuscript overhaul is complete (cheers fill the air) and with my data from the rewrite, I’ll make some important resolutions for the New Year. 1. Kill the adverb: I eliminated over 250 ly adverbs.   2. Don’t overwrite: My manuscript is 10,700 words lighter with several useless scenes taken out. Watch out for [...]

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Editing, Rewriting, Learning, Oh My!

Posted in Writing in General, tagged , , on November 29, 2009 | 2 Comments »

And I thought I knew how to edit (laughs at self). The truth is that I had no idea. I was afraid to cut words and rewrite and instead focused on being grammatically correct and proper word choice (which I still wasn’t too good at). Now I know better. Ten chapters into my latest edit [...]

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Writers are Exciting People: Meet Kelsey Timmerman

Posted in Writing in General, tagged , on November 10, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

The cliché that writers sit locked up in their writing space, introverted and alone is so far from the truth. Writers are some of the most exciting people to hang out with. I had the pleasure of critiquing with my writing group and a special guest, author Kelsey Timmerman. Timmerman lives with a humorous punch [...]

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Find your voice through critique

Posted in Writing in General, tagged , , on October 21, 2009 | 2 Comments »

One might think that the act of writing helps one find their voice. You know…the way one puts words on a page and sounds like him or herself in actual conversation (although a bit more formal). I have found a better way to discover one’s own voice. The secret: critique other’s work. It doesn’t matter [...]

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My Critique Group (aka call to action)

Posted in Writing in General, tagged , on September 30, 2009 | 3 Comments »

Work can get us all down at times, draining our energy and provoking us to the couch upon arriving home. This has been me for the last three weeks. My writing has been down (reading up however). My creative muse has disappeared. My conscience screams “help, this can’t happen.” Then comes Thursday night. My writing critique [...]

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