Making 'Baby Grand,' the Novel

Okay, I’m going to take a stand here. I love adverbs. Love, love, love them. But they are the Rodney Dangerfield of the grammar world: They get no respect. I’ve read writing blog upon writing blog that suggests going through your novel, doing a “find” for all words ending in “-ly” and then deleting them. [...]

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Those of you who follow my Facebook fan page and Twitter profile know that — ta da! — I officially have finished writing the first draft of Baby Grand. Yay! To celebrate, I took a two-day vacation from my manuscript (I’m right now winding down Day 2). While I’m thrilled to have written the last [...]

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As I try to wrap up the #writing of this #thriller — somehow maintaining my 1,000 daily #wordcount (yay me!) — I find that I’ve written myself into a corner. I apparently had not correctly thought through the motivations of several characters and the feasibility of some of the plot, and now find myself with [...]

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Okay, I #amwriting about 1,000 words a day. Totally in the zone. Totally loving the process. Thank God. I have no idea how some of these other writers I follow on Twitter manage to do thousands more a day — 1,000 just about keeps me productive, but sane. I hit the 60,000-word mark today. Woo [...]

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There’s something so poetic about her writing. I’m feeling a bit mellow this morning, following a highly charged July 4th weekend, and this post just hit the spot. Poetic, thoughtful, true. It made me think about how important validation is from mentors for aspiring writers. I wonder if that ever changes with success. It's important [...]

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A fellow aspiring novelist, @professorbeej, recently blogged about how outlines didn’t work for him. He had assumed he’d needed an outline for a long and complicated undertaking, such as a novel, but got tied up in too much detailing. In the end, he chucked his outline and finished the first draft of his novel by [...]

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Hmmm… I think Ms. Ringle was being rather creative. Worst Writer-Award Winner Disgusts With Sexy Rodent Metaphor.

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