Monday, August 30, 2010

A Strong Beginning Inspires Revision

When I'm revising, I have to get the beginning to feel right before I move on. It's not just the pressure of knowing that those first few pages--probably the most edited in the entire manuscript--are important for hooking the reader. At this stage, they're important for me too. They get me fired up to keep going.

Revisions are hard. Sometimes when I get to the middle, problems in my novel seem too big to fix. But I can go back to that "pretty good" beginning, and see the spark of where I'm supposed to be going. Remind myself what I promised the reader, and what my character wants.

What inspires you stay on track when you're revising your novel?

Friday, August 27, 2010

Catching Up on Writing and Reading

I'm slowly emerging from summer fun mode and getting back to a routine, including writing, critiquing, and blogging. Sometimes I worry that taking a break from it will take my mind too far away and I'll lose some of my "writing magic". Never happens. Even though it make take a day or two to get back into it, writing is a big part of who I am, and it always comes back.

During my break, I did some serious thinking about "behind the scenes" elements of my latest novel. Thinking that I wouldn't have been doing if I'd just kept on with my writing schedule. My notebook is full of questions and scribbled comments on topics ranging from the politics of the place where my characters live to small details about my character's personalities. It's made me more excited than ever about my novel revisions, even though I have a lot of sorting out to do!

The one thing I didn't make much progress on was my 100 book challenge, though I did read Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins this week. I'll need to read it again to absorb it properly. Because I was looking forward to it all summer, there were some elements I found disappointing. But I think that when you're hyped up about reading something, there's often a bit of let down. I felt the same way about This World We Live In by Susan Beth Pfeffer, but after I re-read it, I appreciated it more. Mockingjay contained surprises, good writing, and interesting new characters. It definitely needs a second read that isn't coloured by my expectations.

Monday, August 2, 2010

August Blog Break

Wow, the summer is already half over! I'm pleased to have finished revising my novel, though I hope to revise a second before the end of the summer. I also plan to have a little summer fun! But because it's so busy, I'm going to be taking a "blog break" until near the end of August. So, I'll look forward to catching up with you and all the great blogs out there in a few weeks.

If you're looking for some interesting reading in the meantime, check out some of our great posts over at MiG Writers.