World-weaver. Tale spinner. Geek.
I love my outdoor workspace (except when it’s 30 degrees outside).
For the past month, between work, karate and finally reading Divergent (excellent book, by the way), I’ve been working on the second draft of Hero. And although I haven’t made as much progress as I would have liked, and I’m busting to get to the second part of the my revision process (editing the prose – why does ‘prose’ always sound so snobbish?), the novel is coming along nicely.
This week’s Top 10 Tuesday list was great because I had to go and find 10 debut books I wanted to read. Usually I’m so busy doing my chicken without a head impersonation that I don’t take the time to find out what’s happening in the bookish world.
While there are a lot of books coming out this year, most of them are urban fantasy and I’m a little overloaded on that genre. It also doesn’t help that I’m hideously picky about my reading matter, so my Top 10 is really a Top 9. Continue reading
The 2013 Writer’s Creed
Over at Writer’s Alley, author SA Larsen has started the reBEL Writer’s Creed, as a reminder to be kind to ourselves, to work hard but not stupidly hard and to have faith that, eventually, we’ll get to where we want to be.
And that’s totally sexier than Enzio.
The revision of Hero, using the 7-point plot system
Just after Christmas, I finished the first draft of Hero and since the New Year I’ve been hard at work on the second draft. Dan Wells’s 7-point plot system (aka the Pantser’s Beat Sheet) has been incredibly helpful during the revision process – particularly the layering process (explained in part 5 of Dan Wells’s lecture, available on YouTube) – and it too has undergone a revision. Continue reading
I feel like the rabbit from Wonderland, running around yelling “I’m late, I’m late I’m late!” However, I feel just like myself when I say, I was distracted by a book, revisions to be exact, which is why my first contribution to the Thursday Trail (hosted by Hollywood the Write Way), A Look at the Future, is just a tinsy bit late (if for tinsy, you substitute something the size of the Death Star).
My look at the future involves not just looking forward, but taking a few glances back, because while technology advances faster and faster, we don’t. Continue reading
Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the good people at the Broke and the Bookish.
For this round of Top Ten Tuesday, I’m breaking my list up into two sections. The first section is for this year’s writing-related goals and the second are my reading-related goals.
Here, you may note that a number of my goals include some of last week’s to-read list, as well as a few other challenges. This is not cheating, it’s just good common sense. Promise.
Hosted by the Broke and Bookish
This year I’m participating in a few memes and the very first one is Top Ten Tuesday at The Broke and the Bookish (which is a great blog title!).
Aptly, the first Top Ten for the year is the Top 10 books I’m going to read this year. In this I’ve sprinkled some of the books I also have listed for the Australian Women Writers Challenge (AWWC) 2013. The AWWC is about raising the profile of female authors in Australia, because always seems as if the men win all the literary prizes.
5 new Scrivener template sheets for your enjoyment.
I might have previously mentioned that I love templates, and you might ask why. I love them because they make world-building easier, not in a ‘this is how things must be done’ way, but in a ‘here’s some questions to get you started’ way.
Sometimes, when I’m in the thick of creating a story, or the world it’s going to be set in, I have an idea for a something (generally a plant, animal, person or thing). This something often plays an important role in my developing plot (or world), and while I may know a few details, such as its name and function, the nitty-gritty can elude me. Continue reading
The 7-point plot system really helped me to nail my plot.
A few weeks ago, I was at the half-way point of my first draft and having trouble with my plot. After ten months of steadily pounding away at the keyboard and chipping at the word count, I was increasing asking myself “what the $#*! happens now?” Although I knew what was going to happen at the end of my story, I didn’t know:
And frankly, it was driving me batty. Continue reading
A new project using the Snowflake Method template. As you can see, I like to be organised and I really, really, like templates.
This week, I decided to take a break from my frustrations (otherwise known as a first draft) and trial the Snowflake Method of writing a novel. I even found a great Scrivener template to start me off.
Continue reading
