When You Know You’re Outclassed
Whack on the side of the head!
I entered a flash fiction contest yesterday. The organizers had a time limit. I hadn’t read any of the work of the previous contests… wish I had.
My story was OK. It had a beginning, a middle and an end. For flash that’s good. For some reason I thought that [...]
A Plot
Today I learned to do two things. 1) Write a story from one word. I was thinking of writing, so I used the word ‘plot.’ I put my fingers on the keyboard waiting for something to happen. So I wrote, instead of a plot, I wrote about The Plot… a piece of ground. 2) The [...]
New Story: 8,000 Words in one go.
What a night. I decided that I would forego a big background section in a new novel I have sketched out. I decided that it had enough action to stand alone as a story rather than a distraction in the novel. So I wrote an intro (first 13 lines or so) and fully intended to [...]
Can’t I Ever Get It Right?
I wrote a flash story over the weekend. Philip On The Outside. Two people were kind enough to do critiques (crits) on the project. Both had issues over the story.
Now flash stories are under 1,000 words. This one was intended to be under 500. So you can’t write your way out of an issue, you [...]
Learning Through Criticism
I’m still new to writing for an audience. It’s one thing to write for yourself. You get to write what you want. You can edit it or not. The feedback you get is always a polite, “Oh, that’s nice. Good work.” pat-on-the-back encouragement. You’re not exposed to the withering fire of critical readers.
As I mentioned [...]
A Rejection With Input
I received a rejection on a poem I wrote. It was appreciated. The email dripped with saliva after the reviewers had finished spitting on my little work.
However, the casual dismissal of my submission was a knock on the side of the head that gave me some insight. It’s one thing to write poems for fun [...]
A Pause in the Action
In a week I wrote over 20,000 words on my new project. I’ll consider it done at 80,000.
As I was working on other things, I realized I needed a bit more book learning, both literally and figuratively. So I ordered up a book on plot, a book on characterization, and a book on editing.
I read [...]
Furious Fingers
I started writing on Friday and I am up to 15,000 words as I wrap up for Tuesday night. I find that I can start writing after I read some blogs and have a few extra minutes in the evening.
My current project is now moving along. It is a modern day fantasy with, as it [...]
Quick Ideas can lead to some Hard Work
Yesterday’s idea just wasn’t working out right. I had that little book jacket blurb to guide me. It was coming OK, but I hit a soft spot in the flow. I decided to expand my blurb and wrote a two page plotline summary taking me to the end of the story. Then, last night I [...]
