Tiffiny Rose Allen's Blog, page 5
December 6, 2017
mattory-reylo-shipper-offical:
I DONT WANT A LOT FOR CHRISTMAS, THERE IS JUST ONE THING I NEED:The...
mattory-reylo-shipper-offical:
I DONT WANT A LOT FOR CHRISTMAS, THERE IS JUST ONE THING I NEED:The internet’s safety from the FCC
December 1, 2017
After NaNoWriMo
OK, you did it! You kept your head down and your eye on the
ball, you stuck it out, you sweated and you (possibly) cried. But you got there! You finished the month and you finished the
book!
Congratulations! Well done!
You’re a winner!
………………………….
… Now what?
Well… it’s a first
draft in the most absolute possible sense of the word. There may be those among you who can write a
perfect book in a single draft without so much as changing a word along the
way.
I salute you!
I don’t know if
there are reliable statistics on how rare that would be, but I’m guessing that
90-95% of you still have work to do.
The dreaded
revision…
The friends with
suggestions…
The sudden doubts…
Me, I would let it
rest. Not too long… a week, perhaps
three. Then read it.
Make a decision… is
it something you really, really like?
Does it represent the best of you?
The chances are that it does. If
there’s one thing a marathon writing project does for a writer, it’s that it
burns away the dross. There’s no time to
doubt the original concept. There’s no
time to get bogged down in fiddling around with the characters. There’s no time to let the persnickety brain
take over from the gut.
This doesn’t
necessarily mean that it’s ready to submit.
Thirty-one days is not enough time for doing things like filling in an
essential piece of backstory that you didn’t know you’d need until page 76.
But if you know it’s
got that Something that makes a reader turn page after page after page, if your
confidence in it grows every time you read through it, if you’ve polished
everything you can find to polish…
…then it’s time to
find a beta reader.
NOT a family
member. NOT your best friend. It’s all very well to let them read the book,
but unless they’re writers, really good
writers, most of their comments will not be useful and some of them will piss
you off. (I showed the manuscript of The Falconer to three friends. One of them liked it, one of them didn’t have
any comments, and one of them tried to rewrite the first paragraph! A month later Random House bought it, unchanged.)
If you’ve got a
teacher who would read it, or a fellow-writer whom you know will give you good
feedback, that’s one way to go. And
there’s always the option of turning to someone who is, as I am, a professional
writer-editor, for comment, editing, beta-reading or any combination
thereof.
Who knows… maybe
you’ll join Sara Gruen, Erin Morganstern, Hugh Howey, Rainbow Rowell, and
Marissa Mayer, whose bestselling first novels all started with NaNoWriMo.
Above all, write
on!
November 30, 2017
Final nano updateI ended nanowrimo with about 30k words. I knew I wasn’t going to make it to...
I ended nanowrimo with about 30k words. I knew I wasn’t going to make it to 50k but I am very happy at where I stopped and as a reward my signed copy of Wonder Woman Warbringer came in the mail today! I feel very accomplished, and I feel like I have a terrible first draft. I think of this first draft as a bowl of clay that needs to get soaked and shaped into what it is meant to be. Who knows when that will happen. Regardless, I’m glad I made it this far. Also, to anyone else who participated in nanowrimo this year, be proud of yourself! It doesn’t matter if you won or not, if you wrote anything, it is a step further than where you were before!
November 24, 2017
alyxrae:
universalfanfic:
writing advice: never italicize words to show emphasis! if you’re...
writing advice: never italicize words to show emphasis! if you’re writing well then the reader will know and you don’t need them!
me: oh really??? listen up, pal, you can just try an pull italics from my cold, dead fingers
I feel this on a spiritual level.
November 21, 2017
November 17, 2017
Nano updateI’ve reached over 15k words! I’m still trudging through! Honestly amazed...
I’ve reached over 15k words! I’m still trudging through! Honestly amazed I’ve found time to write despite having four essays due every weekend
November 15, 2017
thylovelylionheart:
thylovelylionheart:
person: oh you write? are you any good?
me: yeah I...
person: oh you write? are you any good?
me: yeah I guess
also me: he furrowed his brow, his brow furrowed, brow furrowing, his brow knit together, a wrinkle creased his brow, his brow browed browingly, brow—
I had no idea this was such a universal problem
Me af
November 12, 2017
November 10, 2017
Another nanowrimo update
Almost at 10k! stopped at 9,339 words for today. Hope to have a little time tomorrow to get a little past 10k, we shall see. Had a few days where I didn’t write anything so I am pleased to have written a decent amount today. Hope everyone is doing great with their writing goals!
