Kaye Dacus's Blog, page 48

#FirstDraft60 Day 5 — Plan to Make Lists. Start Making Lists

Happy Saturday, everyone! This is going to be a quick post because today’s the day on which we can get caught up with our Story Bible prep work and we can cheat and work ahead on characters or plotting, or even downright writing, if we want! We have lots of stuff to keep track of, […]

#FirstDraft60 Day 4 — Choosing How to Track and Organize Your Story’s Timeline and Structure

If you’ve worked through the assignments for the last few days, your Story Bible should be mostly set up and ready to go. Today, we’re going to add two additional, important sections to it. Story Synopsis/Structure One of the things we’re going to work on in Days 21–30 is the development of your story and […]

#FirstDraft60 Day 3 — Creating Your Story Bible

I haven’t heard much from anyone, so hopefully you’re actively working away, completing each day’s assignment and ready and eager for the next. (And if you’ve fallen behind, or if you’ve started late, don’t worry, there will be time later this month to play catch up.) Yesterday, you created your revisions notebook, style sheet, and […]

#FirstDraft60 Day 2: Preparing Your Revisions Notebook, Style Sheet, and Research Repository

Part of doing a challenge like FirstDraft60 (for writing) or Whole30 (a food plan) is making sure that you’ve done as much preparation ahead of time as possible—so that during the actual challenge period (the 30 days of writing in October), you can focus on writing your story because you’re already organized and ready to […]

#FirstDraft60 Day 1: Welcome to the Sixty-Day First Draft Challenge!

Welcome to the official first day of FirstDraft60, a sixty-day challenge to plan and write a manuscript first draft. I hope you spent some time yesterday ruminating on the questions posed and reviewing the planned schedule for the challenge. Today, the questions aren’t rhetorical. Following those are some tips and considerations to keep in mind […]

#FirstDraft60 — An introduction and overview of the plan to complete a first draft in 60 days

As I mentioned on Saturday, I’m challenging myself, and you, to complete a first draft of a novel in the next 60 days. This was inspired by the book Book in a Month by Victoria Lynn Schmidt. In her approach, though, you’re doing your planning along with your writing. And that wouldn’t work for me. […]

#FirstDraft60 – Let’s Complete a First Draft Together in 60 Days

Starting Monday, August 31, I’m going to challenge myself—and y’all—to an audacious project: to plan, prep, and write a first draft in 60 days. For those who have completed NaNoWriMo in the past, this is old hat for you. But there are so many of us who think about it, maybe try for a few […]

Writing Advice from the Bookshelf: Jeff Gerke on First Impressions (Characters’, that is)

Excerpt from The First 50 Pages by Jeff Gerke: Think of your character introductions as short stories, little standalone short films created for the purpose of presenting your main characters to your reader. They will serve not only as introduction but as résumé and business card, brief snapshots conveying the essence of who these people […]

Writing Advice from the Bookshelf: James Scott Bell on Reading to Improve Our Writing (i.e., Critical Reading)

Excerpt from Revision and Self-Editing for Publication by James Scott Bell: You can’t be a great fiction writer without reading. A lot. All kinds of novels. And poetry and nonfiction. Each time you read a book, the flow and rhythm of the writing implants itself in your brain. When it’s good writing, when you respond […]

Writing Advice from the Bookshelf: Jack Bickham on the Urge to Tell Too Much

Excerpt from Setting by Jack M. Bickham: I’ve known writers who got very uneasy—or downright panicky—because they thought they needed to get certain broad-scale information or sense impressions into their story at a given point, but couldn’t find a character to experience all that they desired to convey. If you ever get that feeling, let […]