The National Association of Memoir Writers‘ recent teleconference on travel writing got some gears turning in my head — so I figure it might be useful for you, too. More than 300 people signed up to listen live or get this audio after the event! If you missed it, here’s the audio for when you […]
I’m super excited about revising my manuscript again, and incorporating suggestions from my agent. But unlike my first 86 revisions, this time it’s not the changes that are daunting. This time, it’s finding the time to make those changes. Between my full-time journalism job and my part-time social media business, I no longer have entire […]
Great convo in the comments of Monday’s post on building community around your blog. It’s worth checking out if you haven’t yet. Some great links out there this week: From GalleyCat, a podcast with literary critic Laura Miller on the evolution of the book review. Interesting conversation at literary agent Elana Roth’s blog about whether […]
My manuscript is complete! Ready for submission! Word count: 83,500 Microsoft Word pages: 280 Chapters: 33 Time to write: 13 months Dance with me! C’mon, you know you want to.
I finished a draft of my book! That’s right, I’ve written through the entire manuscript. It feels like a huge accomplishment. I’m ready to move onto the next stage: revision. Actually, I’m already well into the revision process. I’ve edited 16 of my 33 chapters. At least one critique partner has read through them, and […]
Tomorrow begins my writer’s residency at The Hambidge Center! I’ll be there for five weeks, returning to upstate New York in early October. My goal? To finish as much of my manuscript as possible. I doubt I’ll complete it like I expected months ago, when I was accepted to Hambidge. I’m a bit behind schedule. […]
Staring at a bright, white computer screen all day makes my eyes hurt. But I do it — like most of you — for the sake of my manuscript, since I make the most progress while typing away in Microsoft Word. This week, I made a change to my screen, one that seems minor but […]
Some authors say writing a book is like a love story. Writers, they say, go through the same ups and downs with a manuscript as they would in a romantic relationship. In that case, I think my manuscript and I just had our first fight. Last week I was so sick of my book that […]
Lots of little bits of progress this week. My base daily goal is 1,000 new words on the manuscript (“new” words because in addition to that I often revise already-written scenes), and I’m keeping track of those goals via #writegoal on Twitter. If I tweet it, I will meet it! A handful of cool links […]
Please indulge this word-count newbie for just a few moments. What should I use to determine word count? Is Microsoft Word’s word counter a good measure? Here’s why I ask: I’ve been told manuscript pages usually contain about 250 words per page. But I’ve got one-inch margins all around, and when I highlight a page […]