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While I’m not completely finished with my revision of Calyn’s story, I did manage to make it through all the way to my notes at the end of the manuscript.  And even though I’m going to keep smoothing and polishing the manuscript for the next three weeks, I feel like I can say that I…

Since I’m deep into revisions for Calyn’s story, I knew that NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) wasn’t an option.  But there are other options out there.  A few other writers I know have decided to embark on NaNoEdiMo where editing is the focus.  I’d originally been hoping to put the polish on by the third week…

Purple ink decorates the last forty pages of Calyn’s story. (My writing students might have a good idea of how that must look. My goal today is to get a goodly chunk of these change into the computer by noon.  I have lots of other things to do today.  UPDATE: I pushed on until12:20. When things are rolling, it’s good…

Well, I did go through the rest of Calyn’s story on paper.  It will take time to get these corrections and new scenes transferred into the computer.  But I like how things are working. Fortunately for me, a lot of the description from the earlier version can be moved around and re-used.    I have another…

Robin McKinley recently posted this: “If I Want to Make Myself Do Something, Mention It on the Blog.” I don’t have her readership, of course.  But I’m going to put a stretch goal on my blog: I’m going to wrap up an extremely rough draft of the last 30 pages of Calyn’s story this week.  Then…

I probably spent a couple of weeks on the chapter that I just hacked out of my manuscript.  I liked it. It had fun and drama.  But today I decided that Calyn just wouldn’t risk it–not with what she has at stake.  Fortunately, a few other ideas rose up to take its place.  Of course, those…

In our last Christmas letter, my son to our family about my troubles with naming characters.  I have learned over the years to be very careful about not using temporary names because my characters get attached to them. In fact, I’ve gotten into a smidge of trouble with the naming of one character in SUSPECT. Since…

SCBWI Michigan put on another lovely retreat at Yarrow Golf and Conference Center. I hope to be posting some insights from the faculty as I go through my notes.  I picked up a lot of good information on everything from pacing to social networking.

Chapter 24 is definitely part of Calyn’s darkest moment.  Chapter 25 definitely covers decision time of the step outline.  I have it blocked out.  Instead of carefully moving through to work on smoothing out the transitions and polish the interacting sections of action and description, I’m moving on.  A lot of dialogue will have to be…

The Grand Rapids Press had a very nice review of SUSPECT.