I’ve written about my writing process before, usually in the context of what physically happens at each stage. I haven’t been as honest with you about the emotional stages of writing a book. Sometimes it’s not pretty. Sometimes it’s not...
Today’s cute is brought to us by Chewie. Chewie lives in my neighborhood and greets me several houses away when she sees me walking around the block. She’s painfully cross-eyed and absolutely rotund, so much so that her head looks disproportionately small...
I think there’s still a myth floating around out there that authors open up a Word document, place their hands on the keyboard, and peck away until a perfect, fully formed story comes out. In this fantasy, writing a novel is a linear process that starts at page...
After I finish the first draft of a novel and before I dive into the edits, I read the entire book and make a bulleted list of everything that needs to be changed. I used to find this process humbling and depressing. I spend days listing all the flaws in my first...
I had a lovely weekend, the kind where you forget all about everything that happened in the previous week…including where you’re at in your novel. I spent the day getting reacquainted with Leads & Lynxes and then outlining the last scene before the...
I’ve been running the outline for Leads & Lynxes through its paces today. What does this mean? For starters, I make sure it has all the acts, all the beats, and all the stages of a hero’s journey. Which it does. Then I tried something I’ve done...
