We’ve got a pretty small house. And with three young kids, it’s full of stuff. And by that I mean I’d post a picture of our living room floor, but that might give you the impression that I live in a family of hoarders. Fortunately, my wife has taken on the task of decluttering. It’s […]
When is a scene worth keeping?
Revising a novel is difficult. A big part of the revision precess is cutting. It’s not easy to do, but there are plenty of parts that need to be cut. One thing I recommend is to break the entire thing down into individual scenes. A yourself the following questions for every single scene in the […]
Hello, my name is Jason, and I used an adverb one time…
Adverbs. You know, those pesky little helper words that make up 75% of most English Comp I papers. Those things that you’re supposed to limit as much a possible if you write genre fiction. Those things that can take a tight 2000 word short story and turn it into a 2500 word crap-fest if you’re […]
Dealing with Criticism
You know, I’ve written a few articles about rejection on this site, but I haven’t every really touched on criticism. In my head, they’ve always sort of gone hand in hand, but in real life, it’s not like that at all. When a rejection comes, it means that’s it. That particular editor doesn’t want your […]
Revisions: Don’t Try To Do Everything At Once
The September issue of Writer’s Digest has an article by Gabriela Pereira titled “The Great Revision Pyramid.” I was eager to read the article, as I’m working on a major rewrite of my second novel. In the article, she talks about how non-writers might think that once the first draft is written, the book is […]
Is your first draft automatically your worst?
“Good stores are not written. They are rewritten.” I’ve seen that quote attributed to everyone from Phyllis A. Whitney to Stephen King to Michael Crichton. I’m going to guess that it’s from Phyllis A. Whitney, since she lived to be 104 and would have therefore had time to come up with all sorts of nifty […]
Is Your Story Too Boring?
A big warning sign that your story needs some more work is if the mere thought of reading it, let alone working it, cures your insomnia or bores you to tears. The problem here is pretty obvious. If you can’t bare the thought of sitting through a story your wrote, what makes you think a […]
Getting to the second draft
Whoever said writing isn’t easy was actually lying. Writing, by itself, isn’t a complicated act. All you need is a computer (or a pen and paper) and a daydream. Anyone can daydream. Writers simply put those daydreams on paper. It might take a little bit of time to get started. You might have some sort […]