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I’m not entirely sure whether I have one chapter or two here.  It all depends on how many words get added later to smooth out transitions and build scenes.   Right now, I essentially have the first draft from my notebook typed into the computer.  (A general process that I just described over at My Word…

Well, I just finished the dramatic section of “the darkest moment.”  In Chapter 24, the horror will settle in and Calyn will have to make a decision.  Handily enough, that’s the next section of the step outline.  I’m currently on page 210 out of 237, but I know that it will take at least twenty…

Things are looking terrible for my characters at the end of Chapter 22.  So naturally, that’s a very good thing for the book.  Again, things are pretty rough, but I did some smoothing of Chapter 21 along the way.

Usually, I do have to have everything in pretty good shape before I go on.  Chapter 21 is pretty ragged.  I need to work on descriptions of towns, towers, clothing, food and one creature.  I now have new links on my list of favorte links pointing to the various models that I’m using for the…

I know that Chapter 20 is a bit on the short side, but I decided to declare it done for the time being.  It will undoubtedly need tweaking after this draft is finished anyway.  And I’m pushing forward into the final “temporary triumph” before the “darkest moment.”  Tense moments for my character are helping me…

Earlier this summer, I marked the end of a newly completed chapter with an announcement.  I believe the reason why I got out of that habit was because I went through a stretch where I was mostly revising old material and adapting it to some new aspects of my plot.  But today I noticed that…

One things writers struggle with is when to follow up with an agent or editor after that person has requested a manuscript.   I’m going to share a few general recommendations.  Keep in mind that I’m the type who tends to err on the conservative side of this. I don’t want professionals in the publishing world to…

This morning, I had a chance to see the beautiful cover for Elizabeth Bunce’s forthcoming novel, Starcrossed. I was pretty excited because her CURSE AS DARK AS GOLD was my favorite new fantasy the year that it came out.   The plot for her new book looks interesting and unusual, but I was a bit horrified to…

Once you get a burst of inspiration, you need to find different ways of getting it down on paper from outlining to polished prose. After my last mowing/brain-storming session, I wrote down a lot of the specific ideas in my Calyn notebook: encounters, events, scraps of dialogue.  After that, I moved onto a bit of outlining.  …