Failing Beautifully
I assigned myself this blog because Life had taken me away from Art and I needed a way back to the page. I thought if I had a deadline I’d produce. And I have produced—many many badly written glib little…
Tag: novel revision
When You Want to Burn Your Novel Draft
I don’t even want to look at my novel draft. I want to burn it and watch the pieces float away and disappear forever. My characters are screaming at me, and I am ignoring them. The good news, I suppose,…
Fish Can’t See the Water: 6 Revision Hacks for a Fresh Perspective
At the beginning of this year I started up on a new revision of a book I’d been working on for two years. And for two years I’d been swimming inside the world of the story, intimate with its characters,…
An Interview with Louise Miller, Author of The City Baker’s Guide to Country Living
Louise Miller’s delightful debut novel, The City Baker’s Guide to Country Living, follows pastry chef Olivia Rawlings from Boston to idyllic Guthrie, Vermont following a workplace accident precipitated by a flambé dessert. Olivia’s life in Guthrie takes an unexpected turn…
THIS DRAFT SUCKS
It’s the first afternoon of the Novel Incubator Alumni Writing Retreat in Jackson, NH. From my room up in the eaves, I read over the last chapter of the latest draft of my novel, attach the whole thing to an…
Dharma Buds: Revision Road with Buddha and the Gecko
I have just spent two-and-a-half years revising my novel.* The odds on getting it published feel, well, long. My writer friends (published and in-the-queue) tell horrific tales of editors** who do not buy the manuscript, but offer advice, “What if…