Category: Novel-in-progress
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All that and a bag of chips
Six years after starting my first novel, I’m embarking on the second. This time, I’m doing it completely differently. First time, passion drove me. I saw a program with a flimsy gay relationship, where one of the lovers was quickly killed off and forgotten. I promised my characters a better…
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One and twelve
First day of the final draft. In 2020, genius-me finished the first draft of my current novel-in-progress, in only six months. Finished! Why do people moan about how hard writing is? Knowing how to read words, and having written a few poems and stories, I surely knew how to write…
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Five-minute journal
As of Jan 1, I’ve been using a brilliant journalling technique that a writing instructor shared: Spend five minutes each night before bed writing about your manuscript. (Not working on it, mind you. That comes the next day.) What I discovered about that short story, “Smooch”: I don’t care about…
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Like flying
When I’m writing well, it feels like flying. Heady, steady, free. No need to steer or fear. Perfect harmony: page, words, brain. I’m not flying now. I’m standing on a rock, holding the pages of a story I’m shaping, and gathering myself to leap with them into flight. I’m crouching,…
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A space left empty, a space to be filled
I became an explorer, a collector, a manipulator, a prisoner of words. #5amWritersClub
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Bijou and the Philosopher Tree
Like an ancient tree, a story has an inevitable internal logic that the writer must find and follow.
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A rock in the shoe
The #5amWritersClub virtual retreat starts today, Friday, April 23, 2021. For the past two months, we 20 participants have worked hard, preparing our manuscript synopses, 10-page samples, and peer critiques. We’ve also done a series of writing segments in response to prompts. Below is my quick-writing response to the prompt,…
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Three brushes with death
#5amWritersClub Virtual Retreat—Weekly Writing Prompt—‘Brush With Death’ Every character has had some brush with death in their history. Perhaps they were a witness to an accident, maybe they saved someone, or they almost died. Whatever it was, these moments often shape a character’s point of view. Write a scene where…
Writing Spaces 