Category: my novel’s progress

  • Friday’s Findings

    Friday’s Findings

    During this period of COVID-19 crisis, each person who writes finds himself or herself in his own unique situation. Some are furloughed from work. Some are working at jobs considered essential. Some who write full-time already may not find their writing routine changed much. I am blessed to have a job during this time. Fortunately,…

  • Friday’s Findings

    Friday’s Findings

    Sometimes I find myself using the same gestures for my characters over and under and over again. I think I’m guilty of making them “furrow their eyebrows” a lot. While the gestures and body language suggestions from the first item in today’s list is not exhaustive, it can give you ideas for your own variety…

  • The Worst Thing About All This

    The Worst Thing About All This

    I wrote this last week as I tried to grasp how much sacrifice we are all going to make. My heart goes out to those families who have lost loved ones, the biggest sacrifice of all. Even though the following is about something less devastating, it is my attempt to express how I came to…

  • Friday's Findings

    Friday's Findings

    I always think of my first draft as a lump of clay I’ve been working on for only a few minutes. It’s wet and soggy and unpainted, but I know it’s unfinished and the best is yet to come. Why Your First Draft Isn’t Crap Stop Killing Your Creative Genius How a Career Can Reveal…

  • A Three Hour Writing Course That’s Worth Your Time

    A Three Hour Writing Course That’s Worth Your Time

    Beware: the following sounds like like a commercial, but it’s only because I liked the “product” so much. Now that I’m wrapping up the second draft of my WIP, I wanted to share my thoughts about an online course I took called Write a Bestselling Novel in 15 Steps, which I’ll refer to as WABNI15S…

  • Friday’s Findings

    Friday’s Findings

    A couple weeks ago, I shared some tips on how I trick myself into writing. One of those tips was to print out your manuscript and put it in a binder. Having tangible evidence of your hard work can be motivational. But what format should you print it out in? The first link in today’s…

  • Don’t Be Afraid. Don’t Be Very Afraid.

    Don’t Be Afraid. Don’t Be Very Afraid.

    Ever since Jeff Goldblum’s character uttered those words in the 1986 film The Fly, he has inspired people to use them in a humorous but sincere way to express anxiety about a current situation. That includes many aspiring writers I see on social media who are afraid “their WIP will not be well received. I…

  • Some Recommended Resources for Writers

    Some Recommended Resources for Writers

    Check out K.M. Weiland’s latest article on her blog for writers, Helping Writers Become Authors: The Professional Writing Resources I Use for All Parts of the Writing and Publishing Processes This awesome blog post has several resources I’m going to consider using in the future. I also recently came across the following links for writers…

  • How I Trick Myself into Writing

    How I Trick Myself into Writing

    Even though I love my Work In Progress (WIP), sometimes I need a little motivation. Recently, just for fun, I printed out the full manuscript of the second draft of my WIP. I couldn’t believe how tall the stack of pages turned out to be. I had only worked on my WIP digitally. I had…