Dec
27

Waiting Game

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There’s a certain sort of elation when it comes to finishing up a draft – usually followed by a few hours of bliss and then a period of “Now what?” Or in my case, I get to fight off a nasty cold. Usually it’s a combination of burning the candle at both ends and “let down.” (AKA my body going into relaxation mode after a period of extreme mental exertion. Plus Lucy had a cold/flu thing this past weekend, and I seem to have picked it up. Eh.) But as I mentioned in my previous post, even though a draft may be “finished,” it never really is.  In this case, I wrapped up the edited draft at about 140k and then cut about 6k off of it, just searching for word echoes and repeating phrases and the like. I’m still not completely happy with the ending, but I know at… Read more
Dec
17

Lost in Rewrites

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There’s this question that writers tend to get often – how do you know when a story is finished? And the short answer is that it’s never finished. Not really. (It’s partially why I don’t go back and read my own books, to be honest. I always find places where I’d really like to go and change things. Maybe small things. Maybe big ones. Doesn’t matter, though – once that manuscript is off and done, that’s pretty much it.) That being said, I’ve been working on this new book. New project. Whatever it is. And I’ve mentioned it  here and there on this site and the Word Whores blog from time to time. I’m late with it. It should have been done months ago – so I tend to feel a lot of guilt that it isn’t.  (Blah blah, draft done in April, two surgeries and painkillers and just overall… Read more
Nov
26

Brain Freeze

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This awesome image is by Natalia and you can get it on a T-Shirt here! It’s a pretty good representation of my own mind at the moment. Mostly because I’ve got a number of things being juggled, but also because I suddenly find myself with ideas and no place to put them. And most of them are unrelated, so then it becomes a matter of prioritizing – what can I get done and what’s a pipe dream, and what just needs to be back-burnered until such time that it makes sense to work on it. Like, I have this concept that could make a really funny, tongue-in-cheek game or comic…but I’m not sure where or how I’d pitch it. (I *could* write it up as a series of short stories or something, but honestly, everything I’m imagining definitely requires a more visual medium.) And okay, yes, I’ve got friends in… Read more
Nov
19

Writing Voice

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In cleaning Lucy’s room this weekend, I came across her 1st grade journal – basically it’s one of those class things where the students are required to write about something every day. Most of Lucy’s entries are an odd mix of things – wanting to be a Ninja or a werewolf or some random ramblings about trees and how happy she is that there aren’t any that have been cut down around our house. It’s funny, because in meeting with her teacher this year, there was a lot of talk about her writing “voice” and how distinct it is. Which is one of those elusive things authors tend to talk about – no matter how good a writer’s grasp is on story or plot, you can’t really teach voice. It’s something you have or you don’t, although I believe it can certainly be cultivated – it’s the unique thing about… Read more
Nov
13

Fairy Tale of Murder Hello Kitty

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The one thing I love about traveling is just how different the little things are. Aimo sent me this picture from her local Malaysian McDonalds – where you can apparently buy Hello Kitty toys based on different fairy tales for this next month. (She got me the Ugly Duckling, yo – because she is awesome.) But what really cracks me up, is while Red Riding Hood and the Frog Prince are Grimm Fairy Tales and the Ugly Duckling is Hans Christian Andersen, we’ve also got the cowardly lion from The Wizard of Oz. And then we have the Singing Bone Hello Kitty. Which, you know – I get that most fairy tales come from a grim-dark area – the original Red Riding Hood and Frog Prince weren’t always that pleasant, but at least they had happy endings, more or less. The Singing Bone? It’s a Grimm tale as well, but… Read more