Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Context and Momentum for a First Draft


Sometimes I find it stressful to read too many "how-to" or advice articles when I'm working on a new project. When I'm just starting to draft, the whole experience seems a little fragile, like if I go the wrong way or think too much it all might collapse into nothing. But so far this week, I've read a couple of great blog posts that helped me with my writing:

1. Darcy Pattison has some great advice this week about thinking about the context when trying to see the world through a young character's eyes, in I Wasn't Alive When...Consider Your Audience. Such a great reminder!

2. Laura Carlson's guest post over at The Bookshelf Muse on Increasing Your Book's Momentum gave me lots to think about. Her point about how readers have become impatient in our world of instant updates makes a lot of sense. She highlights the most important places to build momentum in the story and offers some great tips for finding and fixing places where momentum is slow. Definitely worth checking out!


Do you read about writing strategies and techniques while you're drafting a novel or do you find it distracting?

2 comments:

  1. I still read those tips while writing the first draft. I have to otherwise I would have nothing for Cool Links Friday. But I'm not applying it to my WIP. That stuff is what revisions are for.

    Laura's post is great. Darcy's was in my inbox, but I didn't read it. Guess I should do that. :)

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