Catching up on some of my blog reading today, I found a great YouTube video (I can’t display it on here, but check it out at Beth Revis’ Writing It Out blog, it’s worth it) with Looking For Alaska author John Green telling us what NaNoWriMo does: teaches us discipline because you need that if…
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Revision update: Still on chapter 22 of 30, thanks to a car that needed an alignment and wheel balancing (why do these things take so long), laundry and some others. Don’t you hate the way the nitty gritty of life gets in the way of your writing? 🙂 I’ve got eight chapters to do this…
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Revision update: On chapter 18 of 30. Getting a little behind my goal, so tomorrow, I’ve got to step up my game. In my third report from the Houston SCBWI conference, Simon & Schuster editor Alexandra Cooper talks about submitting to an editor, including herself. If you missed my earlier reports, Scholastic editor and author…
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Today, I’m pleased to host Laura Cross, author of many ghostwritten books as well as her new Complete Guide to Hiring a Literary Agent: Everything You Need to Know to Become Successfully Published. In January, you posted great questions about ghostwriting (Thanks everyone!), and Laura has some eye-opening answers. Before we get to them, though,…
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I spent my Saturday at the fabulous Austin SCBWI conference, which offered a great lineup of speakers. Over the next week, or as long as it takes to cover them all, I’ll post what I heard. First up is literary agent Mark McVeigh, who has his own agency, The McVeigh Agency. Mark knows something about…
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Manuscript update: Buried in query letter and synopsis writing hell. Yesterday, I promised more on synopsis writing today, so here goes. I went through this already with my first novel, but when I sat down to write the synopsis for my second, I felt like a toddler on uneasy legs. So, I did my favorite…
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Manuscript update: Wrote a first draft of my query letter in the wee hours of this morning before I dragged myself to bed. It’s not great, but a good start. A better version and the synopsis will be written next week. I just finished reading through a New Yorker feature about Neil Gaiman and was…
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Sad news today. Kirkus Reviews is closing up shop. Parent Nielsen is closing the trade magazine, which has become an institution in publishing, as well as Editor & Publisher. For all aspiring authors who have for years read about debuting books and their Kirkus reviews, they won’t have the opportunity to get a Kirkus review…
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Done today: Chapter 1 (four pages) Revision remaining: 165 pages Daily pages needed to be finished by end of November: 3.5 Finally got down to some good revision this morning. Phew! Does it feel good to be working with the book again. We’ve read that children’s books have been doing better than some other segments in this recession.…
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Current word count: 44,261 New words written: 1,553 Words til goal: 0 / ? words a day til the end of September I finish Got through most of the story climax today. Just have one more adventure part then the final wrap up chapter. I will DEFINITELY be finished by the end of the this week, I think. 🙂…
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