I’m beginning a new DIY writing retreat! Heading down a new path of revising my draft of Novel #2 – better known as The Romantics, a story of two half-sisters and the cottage they inherit in Italy, along with its resident ghost. It was drafted last year during National Novel Writing Month, (NaNoWriMo) a month-long writing marathon in which you commit to write 50,000 words of a new book. Are you jumping into this national…
Preparing for National Novel Writing Month can be hard if you’re allergic to plot outlines. And with any method, it’s a steep climb to write 50,000 words in a month. But if you have the urge to join the 34,000 people who last year completed a novel in 30 days, and your pen is poised over the paper (=your fingers poised on the keys), here are some tips. Thanks to Editor Barbara Bos and Women…
How to get blurbs for your book — this has been my recent focus. I’ve wondered how, if I should, and if so whom I dare ask to take the time away from their own writing. I shied away from it for months. But everyone says blurbs, or short testimonials, help book buyers decide if they want to buy a book. Buyers see them on Amazon, on the back cover in a bookstore, and they…
I never thought I’d be writing about preparing for National Novel Writing Month, but November 2016 changed my perspective on what I had considered a ridiculous rush to write a novel in one month. How could any self-respecting author write so fast, so carelessly, so focused on the wrong dimension — the sheer number of words? And then I tried it. I was in grief over losing someone close to me. I couldn’t work, I…
Ways to Plot a Novel Working on a plot outline so you can plunge into your next big creative project, or getting ready to jump into National Novel Writing Month — could you use at least 10 ways to plot a novel? I have a list of articles for you. Actually, it’s a lot more than 10 ways. Writers in the Storm has an excellent article on different ways to plot your story. From a…
The evolution of a cover design for my novel The Renaissance Club has been a fascinating process. I’m thrilled with this cover art, showing my main character walking into a mysterious, dreamlike Italian Renaissance landscape. The scene shimmers with possibility, like the doorway in time through which she walks to meet her 17th century artist hero, sculptor Gianlorenzo Bernini. Evolution of a Cover Design The process of working with my publisher on cover art began…
For the decades that I’ve been writing, I’ve often wondered why writers wait so much. We wait for inspiration, we wait for writing time, and excruciatingly, we wait for responses from publishers and agents. Sometimes I’ve waited months for a reply to an agent query or a literary journal. Is it just me and my writing? What makes them hesitate and delay? Or is the publishing industry so clogged with writers pitching their writing that…
The skies here in northern California are still a crazy shade of apricot, and sunlight has a reddish tinge, so I was moved to write a rain dance for California, a poem to the rains we desperately need. Once, in Hawaii, I learned an ancient hula dance said to bring rain. And the rains came, for three days! More than 20 fires are still burning, but rain is in the forecast for next week.
Hooray for finishing my DIY writing retreat! Balloons rising into the air!! I’m celebrating that I now have a full draft of Novel #2 – better known as The Romantics. After nearly full week of making this new book my primary focus, every morning, noon, and night, I met my goal. How I Did It The goal was to give myself a week of StayWriCation (see earlier post) and finish a first full draft of…
Here I am on a weeklong stay-at-home, self-designed week of working on my new novel — my DIY writing retreat — and I’m thinking, “What do you do on a writing retreat during breaks? You talk to other writers!” So here I am, kibbitzing with you, fellow writer. I hope you’ve had an hour or more of writing today — possibly you’re even on your own DIY writing retreat — and that it’s going well.…