Terry Shames's Blog: 7 Criminal Minds, page 58
June 23, 2023
Blue Bastard and the Hollow Symphonies, by Josh Stallings
Q: How rough or polished are your first drafts? Do you dare show us?

A: Im gonna use this essay to show my process (Note to Editor: Please only correct finished piece.)(Note to keep it real, I use this for fection not essays, until now.) And I didn’t us anegg time I used my phone, dangerouse because it can suck me away from work.
Step one, Word Vomit. *Egg time set for 2 minutes (*I didn’t use an egg timer I used my phone.) Spelling as you type off. Fingers on keybard. Go!
blue bastard tall ...
June 22, 2023
Deathly Drafts, by Catriona
Craft: How rough or polished are your first drafts?Do you dare show us?

Dare doesn't feel like the right word. I wouldn't show anyone - anyone! - the first draft I'm pounding out right now: not my nearest and dearest; not my agent; not my editor; not Stephen King if he phoned up and asked. Actually that last bit might be a lie. I probably would.
But, in general, I don't talk about or show anyone anything until the first draft is done, in case they say something about it and that deflates the tre...
June 21, 2023
If at first you don't succeed... by Cathy Ace
Craft: How rough or polished are your first drafts?Do you dare show us?
What I call “my first draft” is not necessarily what otherswould call their first draft.
What’s mine?

Before I even sit down to type a first draft:
I have the plot sorted from start to finish, all my researchis done, everyone is named and their backstories sorted. Also I have anoutline, and I have notes for every chapter containing about who iswhere, when, what happens, why it happens, what I want the reader to know...
June 20, 2023
Rough is Smooth and Smooth is Rough by Gabriel Valjan

Howrough or polished are your first drafts? Do you dare show us?
Myfirst drafts are rough as sandpaper.
Thereare times when I know my destination, while other times I have only a vagueidea on how to proceed from Point X to Y. Sometimes I’ll be sitting at my desk like Captain Queegin The Caine Mutiny rolling ideasaround in my head, the way he used those metal balls in his hand. When I polishthe writing, it’s for internal logic and coherence and, because I write...
June 19, 2023
Drafts Are Ugly Things
Q: How rough or polished are your first drafts? Do you dare show us?
-from Susan
Writers who can plow straight through a really rough draft, ignoring the inevitable major and minor problems, word choices, dropped clues, etc. impress me with their steely willpower. Over the years, I have learned not to obsess every day about what I wrote yesterday, or the day before, or since the first page. But I still go back and read yesterday’s work if only to set myself on the same path. And when something s...
June 15, 2023
An Object at Rest from James W. Ziskin
The business and creative sides of writing can feel like being on a teeter-totter. How do you manage to keep a balance?
The simple answer is that I don’t keep a balance. Over the past few years, any energy I might have felt for the business side of writing has evaporated. It’s hard enough to find the time and the inspiration to write, let alone to come up with new ideas to promote my career.
As part of my self-promotional strategies, I used to attend writer conferences every year. Bouchercon, Le...
June 14, 2023
Balance — that’s the thing
The business and creative sides of writing can feel like being on a teeter-totter. How do you manage to keep a balance?
by Dietrich
I set a block of time to write every day, yet there are those situations when that takes some juggling. I think the routine and repetition is important, and I like to treat writing like my day job — only with a lot more enthusiasm. I’m raring to get started wherever I left off from the day before. And I actually look forward to Monday mornings.
While the business...
June 13, 2023
Decisions, Decisions
Terry here, weighing in on our topic this week: The business and creative sides of writing can feel like being on a teeter-totter. How do you manage to keep a balance?
I’m not sure I actually keep a balance. I’m never going to spend the time that being a really good business person requires, but that doesn’t mean I don’t know what I SHOULD DO.
I know what the creative side of writing means for me. It’s letting my interior child out to play and being excited by the idea she comes up with. Foll...
June 11, 2023
Finding Balance
The business and creative sides of writing can feel like being on a teeter-totter. How do you manage to keep a balance?
Brenda here.
When a writer is perfecting their first novel and dreaming of finding a publisher, they may be surprised to discover that writing the book is the easiest (albeit not easy) part. Once a work hits the shelves, the publicity and marketing work begins, and it can consume a lot of time. Finding the proper balance takes a bit of planning.
That said, I'm not convinced that ...
June 9, 2023
These Books Are Not For Burning by Josh Stallings
Q: The building’s on fire, what books do you save?

A: Easy, the books that matter are my signed editions. This year Thomas Pluck gifted me with signed first editions of most of James Crumley’s oeuvre. Tom knows how important Crumley is to me. The Moses McGuire trilogy is a love letter to Crumley’s tarnished drunken knights. Three books were missing, Dancing Bear, luckily my friend Steven Hertzog gave me a signed first edition years ago. That leaves only A Right Madness and The Wrong Case, (weir...
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