revision - Lacey Louwagie

Writing Book Review: Second Sight by Cheryl Klein

Second Sight: An Editor’s Talks on Writing, Revising, and Publishing Books for Children and Young Adults by Cheryl B. Klein My rating: 5 of 5 stars The market is saturated with books about the craft of writing and the nuts and bolts of selling, publishing, and marketing your work.

blogging

2015: A Good Year For Writing

Ever since I was a teenager, I’ve made writing resolutions for New Year’s. I do not take resolutions lightly, as my “finisher” personality type usually means I won’t easily let them go. In the past couple years, I’ve expanded the types of writing I’m doing

authors

Advice I Need to Put in Practice ...

“I’m saying that you should send out, today, the best work you are capable of doing today. Of course you’ll do better a year from now. But a year from now you should be writing the story that you care about and believe in at that time — not

fairy tales

NaNoWriMo Week 3: In Which I Fall Behind

Here I am on Week 3, and I have fallen behind — it’s always my goal to attempt to keep up with my regular writing commitments (journaling, blogging, reviews) while I’m doing NaNoWriMo, but if I have to choose, I choose my novel. November only comes once a year,

article writing

Cheryl Klein Plot Master Workshop - Go If You Can

I’m not real big into writing conferences. I tend to skip over pages about conferences in writing magazines, and my mind sort of shuts off when I read advice about how to pitch at conferences, or how they are a good way to “get your foot in the door.

authors

Some Thoughts After a Writing Retreat

I’m back from a three-day weekend spent at a cabin in the Black Hills on a little “writing retreat.” I got two full days of writing in, and discovered … that two full days wasn’t big enough for my ambitions. I so rarely get the chance to get away

fiction

To Outline or Not to Outline: A Question Only You Can Answer

A few weeks ago, as I fretted over my Dark Crystal submission (which I still haven’t started), one commenter authoritatively told me I must write an outline for it. I did, and I am, because it’s such unfamiliar territory for me that I just feel a lot safer

opening lines

Where to Begin?

Recently, a writer friend of mine told me that the opening line for one of my stories wasn’t really working for her. Like most negative feedback, it wasn’t easy to hear–but it will ultimately lead to a better story. Luckily, I wasn’t particularly attached to that

ebooks

Rumplestiltskin ebook, beta

I’ve brought Rumpled, my Rumplestiltskin retelling, through what is close to its final revision … for now. That is, I’ve implemented everything I intended to implement based on feedback from my writer’s group, and am ready to send it to someone who has never seen it for a

fairy tales

Knowing When to Turn it Upside Down

Although I hate to do it, I find my writerly energies pulled in too many different directions right now, so I’m taking a break from Rapunzel. Ironically, this is the story I most want to be working on, and I think that’s ultimately why I have to do

editing

Pulling up the Weeds

At about this time last month, I planted my first garden since moving to South Dakota, and my second garden in my whole life. My first garden was almost 100% neglected, and I still got some vegetables at the end of the summer, which taught me that cucumbers and zucchini

fairy tales

Rapunzel and Research

Last week after I finished a scene on my Rapunzel novel, I was struck with the conviction: I have to research now. My initial plan with Rapunzel was to do as much research as possible before NaNoWriMo began last November. I was able to do some research, but not as

editing

NaNoEdMo not quite there ... NaPoWriMo has Arrived!

Last night, I came home from the Easter festivities bearing a headache from too much sugar but still determined to log my last two hours to achieve victory in NaNoEdMo … even though editing was really the last thing in the world I wanted to do. Still, I was mostly dismayed

editing

Week 4: As NaNoEdMo Kicks My Butt

As I feared might happen, NaNoEdMo is kicking my butt. Although I’m only slightly behind schedule, finding a “catch-up” time in the near future seems bleak. I was right when I predicted that the requirement of actually putting in the time would make this harder for me than NaNoWriMo,

editing

NaNoEdMo: A Little Like Being Locked in a Tower

Well, March is just a little over halfway over, and I’m barely a smidgen over the halfway mark for NaNoEdMo, clocking in this morning at 26.88 hours out of 50. Despite putting in an hour and a half per day, the edits sometimes feel as if they are

Catholicism

Tuscany Prize Winner - Free E-book!

Hey, folks! Do you remember many moons ago when I entered the Tuscany Press contest for Catholic fiction? Although my manuscript was retained (and later rejected) for their young adult fiction startup, I did not win any of the prizes. But now you can all check out who did! For

editing

March Madness or ... My First Crack at NaNoEdMo

Doesn’t it seem like only yesterday that we were slagging and bragging our way through NaNoWriMo? At that time, the prospect of March, or National Novel Editing Month (NaNoEdMo) seemed blissfully distant. Surely I’d have my other writing projects wrapped up by then and could delve into some

NaNoWriMo

Scrivener: My New Writing Toy

Recently, I’ve begun playing with a new writing toy: the software program Scrivener. It’s a tool developed for the brainstorming and drafting stage of longer writing projects, whether novels, screenplays, or dissertations. It allows you to keep your research, various media files, and notes all in one program.

fairy tales

New Year's Resolution off to a Shaky (?) Start

Last week I wrote about how I want to submit once a week in 2013. I attempted this in 2009, and it lasted a few weeks. Last year, I did okay committing to one submission a month, but even that was a bit of a challenge. Because, like many writers,

Catholicism

New Year's Writing Resolutions 2013

Well, I hope I’m not jumping the gun too much when I say that the world didn’t end in 2012 — which is great, because it means I have more time to write (and even to write about the world ending!). So without further ado, these are my writing

fairy tales

NaNoWriMo: Week Four

This is it! The final week has arrived, and by Friday, I’ll hopefully have another novel first draft under my belt (my eighth!). I’m close to the end of the story now — the prince has been found out, Rapunzel’s hair is cut, and the witch’s backstory

blogging

NaNoWriMo: Week Three

So, supposedly Week Three is where things are supposed to start coming together. This is where the NaNo journey gets better. Although I’m not quite seeing it yet … I’m still struggling through mid-novel insecurity, and the negligence of many other areas of my life for the sake of

NaNoWriMo

NaNoWriMo: On the Home Stretch

Well, in a few days, it will all be over. I’m down to having to write 1500 words a day to finish on time. I haven’t written my 1500 words for today, but I will. What I won’t do is finish this novel; I think I’ve

poetry

Snow Days and Writing

Snow days are so good for writing. Being snowed in today reminded me of living in Duluth, and the time I was snowed in my apartment for two days in a row. My room-mate was in India, missing the only blizzard we got that year. I was working on the

editing

Up to My Eyeballs

My status over at gmail, which is where I keep my “freelance/writing” account, claims that I’m “up to my eyeballs in writing projects.” And the end of the year certainly is a busy time for writers, but now that we’re on the last day of November, I’