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Tag Archives: Drafts

Why Rewriting Is Part of Writing

Tweet If everything goes as planned, my first novel, a fantasy, will be published by the Consortium later this year. I’ve been working on it for nearly six years. I think it’s ready. You should have seen the first draft I wrote back in 2007. It was, in a word, awful. The main character was pathetic, […]

Writing to the Deadline (A Dragonswarm Update)

Tweet I’m a huge fan of GMail. Have I ever mentioned that before? I know I’ve talked about Google Docs, and you can probably take it for granted that anyone who raves about Google Docs appreciates the company’s email service, too. Still. I’m a huge fan of GMail. I never delete anything. Everything goes in […]

Sex Scenes

Tweet I’m taking a short story class out at OU this fall. It’s the one I mentioned in the English department, where the professor claimed fantasy and science fiction stories don’t feature complex, compelling characters. Bah. That still makes me angry. I’m going to get myself in trouble in that class if I’m not careful. […]

What I Learned About Writing This Week…from Writing Horribly

Having no idea whatsoever how long it might take to rewrite Legend’s Heir (working title), and needing a writing project other than blogging (so that I wouldn’t go crazy), I sat down this past weekend and started rewriting what I am now referring to as The Monster Epic Fantasy Novel (MEFaN) — thereby proving that I have gone crazy.

On Editing: What Editors Are For

Tweet This week has been a lot of talk about surprises, whether it’s the unexpected catastrophes that derailed both of my meticulously-planned covershoots so far, or the sudden and unfortunate realization a week before a book is supposed to go to press that it has a gaping flaw in one of the most important scenes. […]

On Editing: Expect the Unexpected

Tweet I started the week with the story of my two novels: Gods Tomorrow and Ghost Targets: Expectation (in stores February 15th!). Specifically, I talked about the covershoots for both books, and the surprises they held for us. Those little surprises are pretty troubling, especially when the book is so close to being published, but […]

On Editing: Expectation

Tweet Five months ago, with Gods Tomorrow poised on the brink of publication, I brought my awesome photographers (Julie and Carlos of Julie V. Photography) to town to shoot some art for the cover. I made arrangements with our model, scouted locations, and put together a whole covershoot in the space of about a week. […]

What I Learned About Writing This Week…from Christmas Decorations

I love my Christmas stuff. But after awhile — especially after New Year’s — it starts to become just that: stuff. It turns into clutter, and I can’t see my life through it anymore. Sometimes, dear inklings, our writing is like that…

On Collaborative Writing: Prewriting Packages

Tweet Yesterday I laid out my plan for a collaborative writing project based on some prewriting packages. Today, I’d like to talk about those packages. The Civilization Book This one actually started as a suggestion from Toby. It’s not a new idea, but it’s a fun idea, and it could give rise to something very […]

On Collaborative Writing: Dividing It Up

Tweet I started the week with the story of my lonely, zombie Christmas. Some of you might have guessed where the series was going based on comments I’ve made before — that writing is a really lonely profession. More of you might have figured it out by looking at the series title, “On Collaborative Writing.” […]