I haven’t written in some time now. I open a file and just stare at the blinking cursor. Nothing is going through my mind. No words to put onto paper, no scene in my head…nothing. A small part of me thinks that it’s fear that is keeping me from writing. It’s the fear of facing an emotion that I think I have dealt with but … Continue reading Fear of Writing
As a writer, I try keep my worlds separate: the make believe world of my novels and the reality of my real life. Sometimes, I am inspired by real world things and create make believe worlds out of that inspiration. Confusing? Yes. When I started Barfly, I was inspired by the song “Barfly” by Ray Lamontagne. I named the novel after that song. The lyrics … Continue reading Figments of the Imagination
There’s a lot of do’s and don’ts when it comes to sending a query to an agent, and I mean a lot. The most important thing I’ve learned is sending a query before you’re ready to query. What does that mean? It means is your novel as edited and tight as it should be? Are all the typos, errors, incomplete sentences, thoughts, etc gone? Are … Continue reading Not Query Time
Somewhere in the middle of writing Barfly, my next novel came to me. Normally, I would just stop what I was writing and start the next one, but I forced myself to focus on Barfly and made notes about the future WIP (work in progress) and what needed to be written and so on. Then today, another idea came to mind. Completely inspired by a … Continue reading Hello Muse
Barfly is finished. 68,708 words and 23 chapters. It only took me 25 days (from November 21st to Jan 14th) to write from beginning to end. I’m sitting here amazed by that fact…25 days. Yes, I wanted it finished by the end of December, but life is not something you can always plan out and it threw me a major curve ball when it took … Continue reading Barfly
Last night as I sat down to write, the words were struggling to come out. I didn’t like the way the sounded together, apart, and so on. They didn’t move the story forward. They didn’t do anything. They just sat on the page mocking me. I studied my outline, read what I had written, and got nothing. Today, I realized why the last 15,000 words … Continue reading The Last 15,000
Received another rejection letter today. The total is now 15 rejection letters with 1 of positive feedback. Break it down further and it’s this: 6 no responses, 9 actual rejection letters. And to break it down even further, it’s this: 8 form rejection letters and 1 personalized rejection letter. I’m sitting here listening to my friend Gareth Asher’s song “Break” and it’s kind of how … Continue reading Break
From Jeff: Without a doubt, however, your biggest strength is in your characters. I like them enough that I could probably write my own stories with them. Helen could be very, very interesting. If that is your biggest strength, I would consider your need to explain everything to be your weakness. Give your reader something to do!” I listen to everything Jeff says. I know … Continue reading Permission to Write
I am sitting and staring at a wall. Not a physical wall, but an imaginary one that is only there in fear. It’s the fear of failing or the fear of succeeding in a dream. I am so close to finishing The Dumbing Down of Love yet seem so far away. So I updated my Twitter status with that. Just to get it off my … Continue reading Encouragement
Just finished a 2000 word short story to submit for a contest. At first, I was scared to write only 2000 words and then I realized it was going to be hard to edit to 2000 words. A lot of “he said, she said” was left out and that made me realize it wasn’t needed and that the story could be told just as well … Continue reading Which Stings Worse: Rejection or Laughter?