Lady Sitwell’s Party. And an update.

March 11th, 2024 · No Comments

I’ve finished the first round of serious line editing on the Witch Novel and now I need to buckle down and make the more serious changes needed. And maybe think of a name for the damned thing. In poking around my folder of miscellaneous writing advice, I came across some exercises I did from WONDERBOOK […]

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Tags: News · Uncategorized · Writing

It was February. I did some things.

March 3rd, 2023 · No Comments

While the Witch Novel is marinating (i.e. I printed off all 299 pages but have not looked at them AT ALL), I’ve turned my attention to my other project, The Glass World Thing. This is the project that started as a fluffy modern romance, switched gears to become a historical fiction supernatural thing (possibly not […]

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Tags: Books · Uncategorized · Writing

Brainstorming

May 31st, 2021 · No Comments

I usually alternate monthly writing goals between actual writing and planning/plotting projects. April was Camp Nanowrimo and I managed my goal of 10,000 words – but it became clear I needed to make some decisions. May therefore became “brainstorm and decide” month. Some of the questions on the table included: What exactly is the religion? […]

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Tags: Writing

Exercising the Mental Muscles: Part III A sharp-edged gust of wind

April 2nd, 2017 · No Comments

SPEAK, DON’T SPEAK V.  Hereafter follows the first-person version of IV. A sharp-edged gust of wind threatened to snatch my hat from my hand and send it cartwheeling down the beach. I was out of practice at this, it seemed. My skirts were too long, my coat too thin, my hat nothing more than a […]

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Tags: Uncategorized · Writing

Exercising the Mental Muscles, Part II: She was out of practice at this

March 3rd, 2017 · No Comments

  Continuing the variations on a theme exercises I did from Wonderbook.  I’m sparing you the “dialogue only” version, which did not really work, and the combined “description only/dialogue only” version, which was not much better. Today’s version is third person and ended up being past tense vs. present. I think I might need to […]

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Tags: Influences · Uncategorized · Writing

Exercising the mental muscles. Part I: The Shore is Grey

February 19th, 2017 · No Comments

  I’ve been less productive than hoped since Christmas (work, events, general laziness to blame) but I did revisit some of the exercises I did from Wonderbook by jeff Vandermeer.  The last one was quite challenging, as it involved rewriting a scene multiple times (some of which I admit to having skipped from lack of interest).  […]

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Tags: Books · Writing

Work that brain!

September 9th, 2016 · No Comments

To keep my writing muscles working while I’m suspended in “I’ve written everything that I know happens and now must actually develop a world and a plot” mode, I’m doing writing exercises. I’ve just started on the ones featured in Ursula K. LeGuin’s wonderful book Steering the Craft: Exercises and Discussions on Story Writing for the […]

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