… is to finish revising! Between now and the New Year, I’ve got a lot going on. Not only will I be spending time with family and friends, next week also is the last week before my self-imposed revision deadline. That’s right: by January 1, I’m hoping to finish revising my book. So rather than […]
I just finished reading Stephen King’s On Writing: A memoir of the craft. Since I started my travel memoir nearly a year ago, I’ve read quite a few books on writing. So far this is my favorite. Why? Because King offers practical advice. Instead of emphasizing that writing is different for every writer, he tells […]
Now that I’m revising my travel memoir, I spend a lot of time looking at scenes and paragraphs that make me uncomfortable and asking myself: should I really include this? That’s because in my first draft, I included everything. I included details that were embarrassing, that I wouldn’t even want my mother to read. I […]
Slim pickings in my Google Reader this week. Here are my faves: Does Social Networking Kill the Author Mystique? Does it sell books? Questions raised by thriller author Jason Pinter. Please stand to the right (if you’re a loser), from adventurer Alastair Humphreys. “Standing on the right (of the escalator) is a metaphor for complacency,” […]
As I research literary agents, deciding which to query when the time comes, I’ve noticed that some don’t accept e-mail queries. Any idea why they do this? My first reaction is that an agent who doesn’t accept e-mail queries isn’t Web-savvy, hasn’t reached the level of comfort with the Internet that I’d want in an […]
Halfway through December already?! Only three more weeks to meet my revision goal. Links from this week: Writer’s Digest brings you: A big mistake to avoid in story openings. Since I’ve rewritten my first two chapters about thirty times, I took note. Writer Ami Spencer asks, Where does the muse come from? She links to […]
Just saw the movie, Julie & Julia. Several friends had recommended it to me, in part because Julie’s blog became a book — exactly the feat I’m trying to pull off. What’d I learn from it? Julie’s blog was successful largely because she put her soul into it. She wasn’t just writing about recipes, she […]
While we’re playing grammar police, here’s a mistake I’ve seen many literary agents complain about (and many aspiring authors make): Using the term fiction novel. It’s a novel. Why not a fiction novel? Because a novel is always fiction, so saying so is redundant. It implies that you don’t know what novel means. And of […]
I can’t stand when people tell me they’re aspiring writers. I know what they mean. They mean they’re aspiring to become a paid writer, or a published writer, or even a respected writer. But aspiring means you haven’t put your pen to paper or typed a story on your laptop. Aspiring means you’re thinking about […]
Full speed ahead on revision! Links from this week: A series from editor Chuck Sambuchino called Successful Queries gives examples of real queries that worked, letters that convinced literary agents to request more from the author. Best of all, the literary agent tells why they worked. Helpful for someone like me who’s preparing to query. […]