Posted in humor, writing, tagged children's writing, dog dressing, funny, humor, writing on November 5, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Real, for-true life has been getting in the way of my writing, twittering and blogging. It’s been just awful. Ask my dog.
Freckles and I did get to attend a nifty writing workshop thrown by Dan Schwabauer–author, speaker, writing coach extraordinaire. We spent an afternoon looking at elements of story, as illustrated through the silver screen.
Cool, [...]
Posted in writing, tagged chapter, coyote, frickin', line, psychedelic, sentence, story arc, writing on September 24, 2009 | 4 Comments »
Oh, Coyote, we meet again.
You have taught me many life lessons, you little son of a…gun. This time you came disguised as Chapter 24 of my WIP. Started out at 600 words.
Ended up with 2000.
How did it happen? Gather ‘round children, let this Storyteller amaze you with her song…
Once there was a young and beautiful [...]
Posted in YA literature, childrens' literature, writing, tagged characters, description, details, kidlit, reader, word count, writing, YA on September 3, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I don’t think I’ll ever write a 100,000 word manuscript.
First of all, my attention span isn’t that long. Also, I have been known to search for just the “right word” for 45 minutes. You don’t pound out 100K words doing that. But the biggest reason is…
I’m just not that into detail.
I can’t spend three pages [...]
Posted in writing, tagged brave, emotion, heart-gristle, writing on August 26, 2009 | 4 Comments »
For me, the hardest part of being a writer is pouring emotion into the manuscript. I’m not a wallower by nature. But a writer has to empathize with her character, remember a time when she felt rage or infatuation or hope. Then she has to dissect that memory, tease out telling nuances.
It’s hell.
But it makes [...]
Posted in writing, tagged children's writers, writing on July 30, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Two of my writing buddies and I are going on a magical mystery tour, (without the LSD), in a VW bus, (more like a Buick), to Iowa, (well, really upper Missouri, but close), to meet with other SCBWIan sorts and…write!
It’s a write-in, man, a HAPPENIN’! With possible cow birthing.
We are [...]
Posted in writing, tagged writing, YA lit, children's writing, plot, outlines, jungle, plan, unbearably cold mitts on July 23, 2009 | 2 Comments »
I’m either very, very brave…
…or very, very stupid.
I’ve just finished chapter seventeen of my WIP. It’s was a big son-of-a-wookie. Originally 2100 words, I managed to whittle it down to 2255. (!!!) What’s next? Why, chapter 18, of course. Duh!
Oh. You want to know what’s going [...]
Posted in writing, tagged bottled lightning, catler, characters, hairy beast, writing on June 29, 2009 | 1 Comment »
This is the Hairy Beast that lives with us. (Like the kids, I don’t want to compromise her privacy by revealing her true name.) She is totally devoted to me and the crumbs that I drop. She follows me around, hides under my feet–I am her mama, through no fault of my own.
Our first dog, [...]
Posted in blogging, writing, tagged blogging, tweet mystery, twitter, voice, writers, writing, writing tool on June 20, 2009 | 1 Comment »
It took me a while to find my voice. In writing, I mean. Let’s not go all melodramatic. People hate that.
I’m in the gooey middle of an experiment called Tweet Mystery of Death. It’s a 6-week “play” of sorts on Twitter. A critique buddy of mine identified the character I play without my telling her.
Interesting.
She [...]
Posted in oddities, writing, tagged procrastination, thinking, writing on June 9, 2009 | 4 Comments »
I was thinking today, about how much I think before I write.
And then, I wondered if I was procrastinating, by thinking about thinking before I write.
But then, I thought well, I’m thinking. Isn’t thinking…work?
I think thinking is work. But I’m not sweating. And I’m not sore. But I am getting unhappy.
So it’s got to [...]
Posted in YA literature, childrens' literature, humor, writing, tagged characters, children's writing, funny, humor, writing, writing tool, YA lit, YA literature on June 2, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I think about 15% of my time with my friends is spent in deep, serious discussion. The other 85% is spent laughing. Giggling, guffawing, snorting, chortling, snickering, tittering, sneering…
Etc.
Pretty sure you see the point bearing down on you like a freight train: we like people who make us laugh.
And we like [...]
spontaneous outbursts–my ill-thought twitterings
