So. I got great feedback from beta readers on Draft. No. 5, no giant plot holes, no record scratch moments, and overall positive, if varied, feedback. I figured I’d read through it one last time and then polish it up and start querying. Then I read through it one last time. I haven’t looked at […]
…and off to beta readers. This will be the first time anyone other than my lovely spouse will lay eyes on a work almost seven years in the making. Hahahaha, hope it doesn’t suck! Shew. I spent two months reading through one more time and doing line edits, tightening things and choosing better words here,
Draft No. 5 is in the Books Read Post »
Inevitably I’ll get to a point in my story where things are boring me, the events aren’t logical in the greater context of the story, or something seemed like a good idea at the time but is no longer working (or all three!). Or I’ll be doing a read-through of my latest draft and there
Brainstorm Like No One’s Watching Read Post »
Studies show it’s true. Look, I get it. You dearly want a neat, multi-step process for getting from idea to finished novel. Maybe there are people out there who are able to go step by glorious well-defined step and end up with a work that pleases them (and, ideally, others). Most of us are not
Your Creative Process is Mostly Just A Mess Read Post »
I read books on writing in waves, gleaning what I can and moving on to get to the business of actually writing. I’ve been reading fewer of these kinds of books as of late, which I suppose is inevitable as you see the same advice and methods recycled in different ways. I’m definitely the kind
George Saunders on Presence and Revision Read Post »
Our neighbors down the street were moving out from a house they’d been in for 35 years. Apparently the wife had been holding onto her parents’ typewriters over the years and finally decided to get rid of this one, leaving it in a box by the roadside. My awesome spouse spied the treasure and I
Shaking Things Up With A Royal KMG (ca. 1949) Read Post »
Until I finish this latest draft of my novel (I’m close. So very close), I’ll be posting videos of writerly and other artistic things. At least as I perceive them. Hope you enjoy them until regularly scheduled programming resumes. To kick things off, here is Neal Stephenson talking about SF/Fantasy Actors. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AwUWO0pYL0]
[tweetmeme source=”jjdanz” only_single=false service=ht.ly] A noir thriller/visionary fantasy set in the failed state of Ambergris, 100 years after Shriek: An Afterword. The gray caps, mysterious underground inhabitants, have re-conquered Ambergris and put the city under martial law, disbanding House Hoegbotton, and controlling the human inhabitants with strange addictive drugs, internment in camps, and random acts
I’ve been working on developing a concise blurb for the novel I’m writing. I’ve gone through no less than four iterations of a back-of-the novel blurb in hopes of distilling the story in my mind. And as of last night, I reduced it further to a one sentence blurb that I’m not embarrassed to put