Musings

Five Tips for Increasing your NaNo Word Count

October 11, 2010

NaNoWriMo is almost upon us. Writers everywhere are stretching fingers and sharpening pencils, saying farewell to loved ones and clearing schedules to accommodate large blocks of writing time. The goal of NaNoWriMo is to pen 50,000 words within the month of November. Your mission is to get to that word count. There are no rules [...]

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Reading Between the Lines

September 30, 2010

Form rejection letters give you very few words to work with, so it’s natural to try to read between the lines and squeeze out a little more meaning; a little more of an explanation. Don’t bother. Really. You’re just putting yourself through unnecessary stress. I don’t mean to be harsh here, but I see a [...]

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Professional Address

September 27, 2010

I know I’ve compared the query letter to the job application before. I find it a useful comparison to make because, in essence, when you’re asking a publisher or agent to take on your manuscript you are asking for a job. I’ve discussed professional greetings and professional tone on this blog, but I’d like to [...]

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Inside Voice and the Internet

September 16, 2010

First of all, let me say this: I believe that, in public, we should always paint our colleagues in the best possible light. If we don’t, it reflects poorly on them by spotlighting their flaws; it also reflects poorly on us — by branding us as the sort of people who openly criticize others, and [...]

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Character Motivation

September 9, 2010

How important is it for a writer to communicate a character’s motivation? Character motivation is critical to writing, but it should not be expressed directly to the reader. It’s the perfect case for the old phrase, “Don’t tell it, show it.” It helps me to think of motivation as an acting word more than a [...]

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Creeps to Watch Out For

August 23, 2010

A manuscript is not a linear creature. We go back and change things. We revise a sentence. A paragraph. A concept. We reorder chapters. New content integrates with old. Ideally, it does this seamlessly. However, a manuscript is also not a body of water. The changes made to the pages don’t ripple naturally through the [...]

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Librarians Love a Challenge

August 19, 2010

We’ve all gotten so accustomed to having the Internet at our fingertips no matter where we are, that it’s easy to forget that there are other resources available to us. One of the benefits of going to the library and looking things up in actual books, is that in the process of doing your research, [...]

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Old Habits, New Tech

July 12, 2010

I’m one of those firm believers that e-books will never completely replace paper. There’s something comfortable about turning pages, something proud about showing off a collection on a shelf, and something exciting about getting a book signed by the author. I also like the portability of a book, and being able to read in all [...]

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Foretold

July 8, 2010

A couple of weeks ago, I had the unenviable task of going back to my late mother’s empty house and trying to put it in order. I won’t be keeping the house, but there were important papers that needed to be found and equipment to be returned and services to be terminated. It was difficult, [...]

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Synergy

April 15, 2010

Sometimes the whole really can be larger than the sum of the parts. On many levels. I find it to be true in my working relationships. Editing with Dragon Moon Press has introduced me to some fantastic people with whom I’ve had instant chemistry and rapport. Delving into something so creative and personal together is [...]

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