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Tag Archives: Marble Statue

What I Learned About Writing This Week…from Starting A New Blog

Many moons ago — before Facebook became open to the general public, when “twitterpated” was still a Bambi and not a social networking reference, and before YouTube made movie stars out of all of us — I started a blog. I don’t remember why I did it. I plunged into writing my first post without giving it any real thought before I started. I hadn’t the foggiest idea what I was doing…

On Rewriting Your Manuscript: Beautiful Storytelling

Yesterday I talked to you about your book’s big, bad rewrite. I gave you one example of how it might go, and then started into a bit of a pep talk. Now it’s time for me to tell you about application, to tell you how to do your rewrite. That’s a tricky task. I don’t [...]

On Rewriting Your Manuscript: My First Book Club

For nearly a year now, Trish has been participating in a monthly book club with our friend Becca and several other ladies I don’t happen to be familiar with.  She has really enjoyed it, as much for the opportunity to get out on her own and hang out with grown-ups at least once a month, [...]

On Reworking Your Manuscript: Shaping a Story

So. We’re reworking your novel. What exactly does that entail? It entails voice and style. It entails characterization and foreshadowing. It entails hooks and cliffhangers, suspense and resolution. This is the point in the story where you put in all the beautiful little things that will go unnoticed by your reader even as they work [...]

On Reworking Your Manuscript: Adding Some Flavor

I started this  week with a story about my creativity in the kitchen. It all really boils down to finding a prepackaged dish I really like, and adding some chili powder. Usually black pepper, too, but that didn’t make it into Tuesday’s story. It’s a solid metaphor for what we’re doing with our novels, now. [...]