I have never been a runner, but I am guessing that as runners near the finish line of a race, they don’t look back to see how far they’ve come. They have their eye on the goal. But as a writer, I often find it instructive to look back at my process. This...
In a little less than 2 months, The Inquisitor’s Mark comes out. Traditional publishing is strange in that the gap in time between the writing of the book and the release of the book is SO LONG, I can hardly remember what it was like. In fact, when I sat down to write...
Next Monday, school starts for my children and for my former teaching colleagues, but not for me. This is the first time I haven’t started school in the fall since I was a kindergartner. To distract me from this major life change, my husband suggested I do...
If you read Monday’s post about my struggle with my WIP, you might not be surprised to hear I’ve been looking at strategies for outlining. However, if you’ve followed me for any length of time, you’re probably shaking your head, saying, “Again? Dianne, you know...
Conventional wisdom says that after completing a first draft, you should lay it aside “to rest” before beginning any revisions on it — I’ve heard some experts recommend six to eight weeks!Well, conventional wisdom (and those experts) must not...
On Monday, Vicki Tremper posted a link to an article by LibbaBray that I really, really needed to read this week. If a rock star like Libba Bray can struggle so much with a book – and a sequel, at that – and if she finds outlining strategies and worksheets as...