Happy New Year everyone. Hope you all are recovered from the holidays and back to your routine, back to writing. I’m in the midst of writing my second royal series book, this one about an American girl who discovers she’s a long lost princess. As I’ve been working through the first book and now the second, I realized each one has a fairy tale structure. Susie got jazzed about me blogging on this topic. The fairy tale structure is rich and entertaining. Though like all storytelling, it still requires me to dig in and work the story that is true to the characters. All the great thing we learn here at My Book Therapy on story structure still apply. Even more so in fairytales. The story world. The dark wound […]
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Writing Over the Holidays
It’s the holiday season and if you’re anything like me, you’re busy. In fact, you’re probably more busy than I am because I don’t have children. I have a book due February 2 and it’s overshadowing the Christmas season. But it’s not the deadline’s fault, it’s how I write. I fast draft a very ugly novel, then I rewrite. Almost from scratch. I layer and fine tune, change and deepen. I write fast but nevertheless, it takes me awhile to think things through. To figure things out. To take the norm and turn it upside down, inside out. Friday my husband and I are taking off for Tennessee to be with my family over Christmas. It’s going to be loud and wild but I cant wait. But when I calculate […]
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The Writer’s Emotional Bank Account — How To Make A Deposit
Q: I just finished NaNoWriMo and now that I’ve completed my first draft, I can’t seem to settle down and focus to start the rewrite. Do you have any tips or ideas? A: Awesome question. First, congratulations on finishing your novel, or most of it for some folks. That is a huge accomplishment. NaNoWriMo is a great tool for authors because it forces us to set a goal. We are writing toward something. It also joins us with other writers and creates a bit of buzz and excitement, even a bit of competition, that keeps us going. Most goals are like that: end driven. We want to get to the end and achieve what we started out to do. But then what? So, you have 50,000 or more words on […]
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The Power of A Rewrite
Q: Dear Therapist, I hear that novels are not written they are rewritten. But I edit as I write. Is that considered rewriting?, all I feel I need is a final polish. Why should I spend time with a rewrite? What do I gain? A: I love this topic. To rewrite or not to rewrite… that is the question. Let’s just say up front, everyone has a different writing process. Fast, slow, edit-as-you-go, write and rewrite. Early risers, late nighters. A thousand words a day. Five thousand words a day. Writers come in all shapes and mind-sets. Some writers plot to the minute detail. Others have a loose idea of what they want to do when they sit down to write and let the story come to them day by […]
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