Details, Details, Details
Writing » Editing, ThemeMarch 4th, 2009
In class, we’ve been talking about details: relevant vs irrelevant, and how they can alter the power of your story. I tend to rely on details.
Ruminations
General, Writing »February 11th, 2009
This week we don’t have class due to my professor having a conference, which is nice. I’ve been reading through the class critiques of my most recent story, which is always interesting. Sometimes people get what you were trying to do, and sometimes, they don’t, they really don’t.
I’ve been trying some really different things with my writing these last couple of weeks. I’ve written about a woman who missed the funeral of her boyfriend due to his mother lying to her… and so dug up his ashes and took them with her. I wrote a fable about a woman who begins to hug people and the consequences of that. My most recent story begins with a man who wakes up realizing that his mustache has disappeared.
Find a Friend Dialogue Exercise
Writing » Craft, Dialogue, Fun, TensionFebruary 3rd, 2009
Today in class we talked about the mechanics of dialogue, and how it’s a weakness for some writers and a strength for others. We read Robert Bausch’s short story, “Aren’t You Happy For Me?”, which I suggest you all read as an excellent example of external conflict (the dialogue) and internal conflict (the exposition).
Stop Beating
Writing » Craft, Suspense, TensionJanuary 27th, 2009
“Could it think, the heart would stop beating.” – Fernando Pessoa
Today in my English class we talked about the implicit promises writers make to their readers… these promises act as hooks, or mini-crises that build up the tension to the climax or sub-climax of the plot.
Big Day
Writing » FunJanuary 20th, 2009
Well, with a day full of classes and the inauguration, I managed to forget to post. Bad Belinda! I don’t really have a lot to say, other than the fact that I submitted my first short short story (five pages), and I’m terrified to hear the critique. I’m also looking forward to it. But still terrified.
A Tap on the Wing
Writing » Craft, EditingJanuary 13th, 2009
“A book is like a man – clever and dull, brave and cowardly, beautiful and ugly. For every flowering thought there will be a page like a wet and mangy mongrel, and for every looping flight a tap on the wing and a reminder that wax cannot hold the feathers firm too near the sun.”
- John Steinbeck
There comes a time when you realize that there will be weak points in your work, and there isn’t much you can do about it on your own. What do you do when this happens? Some writers turn to trusted friends, family members, former English teachers. Some writers turn to other writers to act as beta readers. Some writers join local writing groups.
As a graduate student, I have the rare opportunity to work with a published author this semester. I’m incredibly lucky, excited, and terrified about this.
Surface Edits
Writing » Editing, Work-in-ProgressDecember 30th, 2008
I’m plugging away at the final surface edits for Trentwood’s Orphan during my winter break from graduate school. It’s fast-going, and I’m surprisingly pleased with how the story is coming together. There are, of course, some chapters that got a little jumbled, but I assume that’s because not only was I retyping the entire book after hand-editing it, but I was converting from present-to-past tense at the same time. As such, some of my tenses got a little weird.
Second Draft Complete
Writing » Announcements, Work-in-ProgressDecember 16th, 2008
As of Sunday at four in the afternoon, I finished writing the second draft of First Draft B. These are the specs…
The goal was to write 85,000 words, thus cutting out what I suspected was 10k words of fluff from First Draft B. It came out to 84,921, and that wasn’t planned. Very pleased.
Book: The Reincarnationist
Writing » Adult, Contemporary, Mystery, SuspenseDecember 9th, 2008
Title: The Reincarnationist
Author: MJ Rose
Genre: Historical Suspense
Length: 455 pgs.
Summary: Josh Ryder, an investigative photographer, is the survivor of a terrorist bomb that exploded a year ago in Rome, Italy. Thanks to the bombing, he is now the victim of odd flashes that have the “emotion, the intensity, the intimacy of memories.” But they couldn’t be memories. In these flashes, Josh is a pagan priest in ancient Rome, desperate to save a woman named Sabina and the treasures she is hiding from the marauding Christians. As his flashbacks uncover his previous life, deaths start piling up around Josh: whatever that woman Sabina was protecting in ancient Rome, someone today thinks they’re worth killing for.
Choose the Bolder
Writing » Inspirational, Quotes, TipsNovember 18th, 2008
“When you cannot make up your mind which of two evenly balanced courses of action you should take–choose the bolder.”
- Ezra Pound
This month, you’re doing what many think is the impossible: you’re writing a novel-length book in thirty days.
Fifty-thousand words in thirty days.
Are you insane?
Yes, yes you are, and I love that about you.
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