Opening Old Boxes
The end of year always puts me in the mood to clean. A new year might be an arbitrary marker of time passing, but finishing up a calendar fills me with the desire to say good-bye to some things, to…
Category: Revision
Final Draft(s): Preparing Your Novel for Its Open House
How do you know when your novel is finished and ready to ship off to agent-land? Planning for this big move has similarities to selling a house or apartment you’ve lovingly furnished and decorated and made your own over the…
Friday Feast: Conflict, Trouble, Trim Prose, Foodies, and Science Fiction and Fantasy
You’ve had your fun, and your belly is full. Now, it’s time to get back to work, or keep the momentum going from NaNoWriMo. With more holidays on the horizon, it’s easy to slip into languor and laziness. Or you…
Your Research is Showing
Everyone has to do research from time to time. When one reader exclaimed of my early sprawling draft, set in the 1930s and ‘40s: “You sure know a lot about a lot!” I did not take it as a compliment….
The Trouble with Endings
By Guest Contributor Kate Leary. In early September I finished the first draft of the novel I’ve been working on for a year. My kids were spending the week with their grandparents in Albany and my husband was backpacking with…
Like a Virgin: Second Drafts
The great thing about the first draft is that it can be as stupid as you want. All you have to do is type shit into the keyboard. Then, after 80k words (or, you know, whatever) and one month to…