National Novel Writing Month

We're done! Or almost done, as the case may be. For many of us, after revisions, there will be workshops and group critiques. Tim Gunn's design critiques are a great model for all sorts of criticism. … [Read more...] about Critiquing: Make it Work

Last day! We're done! And when we're done, it's thud time. Now, I’m in the final throes of that process. I’m revising. I’m reworking. I’m trudging once again through every page, every word, and someday soon, I will be, finally, done with it. And then? I’m going to kill it. I’m … [Read more...] about The thud is our reward

Delia Sherman has some lovely (and very timely) advice to a young relative on surviving the first draft. Whatever you do (and I'm sure there are other things I've never tried or thought of), get that shitty first draft done. You can't fix something that doesn't exist. You … [Read more...] about Letter to a young writer on surviving the first draft

It's the last week. By now, we're all in one of the Nine Circles of Writing Hell. Third Circle - Gluttony No time to eat. No time to work. No time for breaks. No time to attend to essential hygiene. Twenty-six-hours straight. MUST. WRITE. NOVEL. I. WILL. NOT. BURN. OUT. Okay, … [Read more...] about The Nine Circles of Writing Hell

Here's a link to save for December, when you'd rather watch It's a Wonderful Life a thousand times than revise your book. Jenny Crusie's Basics of Fiction class handout is a neat little primer on structuring and revising a story. It's all here: goal/motivation/conflict, character … [Read more...] about Jenny Crusie’s basics of fiction

By now you probably have a lot of awful, no-good, terrible scenes that you've kept because throwing them out would ruin your word count. Here's how to revise them. And, bonus, there are questions at the end you can use to critique your friends' manuscripts. But not today! Do … [Read more...] about Revising scenes with Jenny Crusie

One of my LiveJournal friends, Hannah, does a wonderful, irregular series of posts on gratitude. I love these posts for their randomness and poetry. (Although it occurs to me that I haven't said so lately. Hey, Hannah: I love this series!) Today would be a good day to have … [Read more...] about Gratitude

I like this article from Writer's Digest on creating tension and heightening stakes because it includes a section on dialogue, whereas most other articles on the topic focus on plot alone. … [Read more...] about Creating tension, heightening stakes

I know at least one of my writing buddies is struggling with fight scenes, so here's an article from Janice Hardy on making action scenes work. … [Read more...] about FIGHT!