Gail Carson Levine's Blog, page 32
February 6, 2013
Finish Line
On October 11, 2012, E.S. Ivy wrote, As to why do I finish some (projects) and not others, and why do I fail to finish: I have found that I'm much more likely to finish a project for another person than I am for myself. For example, when I was expecting my first child, I crocheted a dress for my cousin's baby with a similar due date, but got nothing so elaborate made for my own. :)I noticed a similarity in Lark's situation.
My difficulty in finishing, or even progressing, in a book is th...
January 30, 2013
Awake, dead scene!
On September 28, 2012, GillyB wrote, What do you do when you have a dead scene on your hands? You know what's meant to happen next. You even know what SHOULD happen in this scene. But it just isn't moving. Your characters, which were alive like just a second ago, are suddenly wooden puppets. How do you rescue yourself? What if everything that follows is riding on this particular scene and it just needs to happen, for Pete's sake?
Try this: Skip the scene. Assume the events in it have happened...
January 23, 2013
Thinking It Out
On September 26, 2012, Courtney Arzu wrote, I'm an extremely young author...But I would like to know how to set up a story/novel. I can begin a story but I can't seem to finish because I haven't thought it out. I don't know what I'm going to do, what the main climax is going to be or how I'm going to end it. I just wanted to ask: What "outline" would be best for creating the plot? I've tried multiple things, but I always end up writing halfway through and get stuck at my mid point. I don't li...
January 16, 2013
Ready... Set... Send
On October 31, 2012, C.L. wrote, ...how many times do you edit on your own before you send your work to your editor? How long do you wait before editing a book you just finished writing? What do you do while you're waiting to edit one book? How many edits do you tend to go through before you've found you absolutely can't do anything more to a book?
For those of you who haven’t yet discovered this, it’s generally not a good idea to start revising the moment after you finish a story. For me, I t...
January 9, 2013
Mid-book crisis
Before I start, I want to let you know that a poem of mine, “Snow Fight,” was just published in the fall/winter 2012 edition of the poetry journal Sugar House Review. The poem won’t hurt you if you’re below high school age, but it was written for adults. I haven’t read the whole issue yet, so I can’t speak for the rest. I’d say high school and above is safest. If you’re interested in getting a copy, here’s the link: http://www.sugarhousereview.com/subscribe.html.
On October 3, 2012, unsocializ...
January 2, 2013
Past is prologue?
On September 19, 2012, Charlotte wrote, I have a sort of beginning-related question for the comments section (and a post, if you think it's big enough for one): What's everyone's opinion on prologues? I read somewhere that everybody knows that "prologue" is just code for "backstory", but then again, backstory is important, now isn't it? I say this because the first chapter in my current project takes place six years before the main conflict, so technically I ought to be calling it a prologue,...
December 26, 2012
The book biz part two
Before I start, here’s a link to an interesting New York Times article about reader reviews on Amazon: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/23/technology/amazon-book-reviews-deleted-in-a-purge-aimed-at-manipulation.html?hp&_r=1&.
I didn’t finish writing about publishing last week, so here we go back into it.
You may remember that I mentioned the Rutgers conference and said it’s the best one I know of, but I didn’t say why. First off, here’s the link again: http://www.ruccl.org/One-on-One_Plus...
December 19, 2012
The book biz
I’ve contributed a couple of books (Forgive Me, I Meant to Do It and Writing Magic) to a silent auction in relief of victims of the shootings in Connecticut. There are many wonderful items in the auction, which you can view here: http://pubheartsconn.blogspot.com/2012/12/list-of-auction-items.html, and some of which have bearing on today’s post. There are manuscript critiques on offer, which may be great and seem to be at bargain-basement prices and the cause is certainly worthwhile. My only...
December 12, 2012
Poetry finale
This is the last post on poetry for the time being, but I’d be happy to write more if more questions come in.
On October 19, 2012, Charlotte wrote, ...on the poetry front, I'd be interested to hear about your own experience with poetry: do you do it intentionally or just when the mood strikes? What kinds of poems do you usually write? Do you switch things up? How do you edit your poems? How is your process for poetry different from fiction?
I spoke to the sixth graders at a middle school in Con...
December 5, 2012
Rhyme time
Congratulations to NaNoWriMo participants! You did it! Admirable!
For those of you word nerds, this appeared in the New York Times, and for those of you who are thinking about jobs to support you before you become literary super-stars, lexicographer may be a possibility (I don’t know what the prospects are), but it’s an interesting article: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/03/opinion/lies-murder-lexicography-dictionary.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0.
And my husband found this interview with me on Y...
