A Writer Afoot

I’ve been talking with an aspiring writer who is very, very smart and driven, who confessed she didn’t really understand how to develop character beyond what she was already doing. She’s had some revision requests and wants to understand more about how to write great characters.   

This is one of my favorite subjects, [...]

So, COOKING FOR THE DEAD (not sure we’ll keep that title, though I love it), the book I’ve been working on all winter, is in the final polishing stage.  My editor had a few suggestions to brighten things here and there,  and bring out two characters a little more.   My own need was to [...]

As promised in my workshop on Saturday afternoon.  I didn’t print enough of them.

HOW TO GO THROUGH YOUR MANUSCRIPT

First, a warning: THIS IS NOT A FAST PROCESS.

It can be, once you get the hang of it, but at first, as with any skill, you’ll need to practice it [...]

The rewrite is finished.  Almost.   I’ve layered and polished and cut and rewritten.  I could have loaded it up and emailed it back to my agent by now, but I still haven’t quite nailed the grace note.   For me, this is an essential part of feeling really finished with a book.  Even if I [...]

Julie posted a link to a writer blog I hadn’t read: http://www.joshilynjackson.com/mt/ and the writer had a MEME I found intriguing.  Google your first name and NEEDS together to see what comes up.  I Googled Barbara Needs and the first thing was "Barbara needs to blog more," so I’ll take that as a nudge [...]