Category: How to Write a Novel

  • Here’s that Wrong Left Turn In Albuquerque… and it’s as bad as I dreaded.

    Here’s that Wrong Left Turn In Albuquerque… and it’s as bad as I dreaded.

    The first sixty pages of Ohio 3 held up fine. Starting on manuscript page 61, I went in exactly the wrong direction, dropped the really good local character I had in place for one who broke my otherwise tight worldbuilding through two novels and the start of this one all to shit, threw in a…

  • Ohio 2 Revision: To page 398 of 431

    Ohio 2 Revision: To page 398 of 431

    Pretty decent day. This part of the book took significant reworking, and I’m betting this is going to be one of the places where my editor finds out I struggled a bit. But I love what I finally ended up with.  And I stand a pretty good chance of finishing the revision on Monday. I…

  • Catching up on the updates: Starting at page 291 on the Ohio 2 revision

    Catching up on the updates: Starting at page 291 on the Ohio 2 revision

    The last couple days have been hectic, and I’ve managed to miss blogging twice. But I’ve gotten my revision pages every day. This morning, I’m starting the write-in revision on page 291. The last page in the novel is 431. I won’t get there today, but I’ll make good headway toward getting there, and might…

  • 74 pages of revision progress on Ohio 2

    74 pages of revision progress on Ohio 2

    The words went really well. Don’t know how many I added today — but it was a fair number. And I like what I got. I’m very grateful I’ve got a weekend starting, though. I’m tired, and I’ll be grateful for two days of when I don’t have to do anything writing-related.

  • OHIO 2 REVISION: Made it to manuscript page 134 of the Ohio 2 type-in.

    OHIO 2 REVISION: Made it to manuscript page 134 of the Ohio 2 type-in.

    And in this particular set of chapters, I’ve managed to make myself cry a couple of times. The fixes in this section have been mostly small (typos, spellos, extra spaces), and the couple of bigger changes let me add a bit more emotion to the terrible thing that my main character is discovering. It was…

  • Some days go more smoothly than others. Ohio Two Revision

    Some days go more smoothly than others. Ohio Two Revision

    This is such a weird job. Going through the type-in revision of Book Two this morning, I both laughed my ass off and then cried typing in the same scene. That particular LONG scene, now revised, held up pretty well from when I wrote Ohio 2, though I had a couple of complex fixes due…

  • So today I start the type-in of the Ohio 2 Revision

    So today I start the type-in of the Ohio 2 Revision

    I was up at six, (when you’re fasting, it’s weirdly easy to roll out of bed at the crack of dawn and be through the shower, done with the first cup of coffee, before seven AM… and at my desk and finished with necessary work emails and the one help desk ticket only I could do…

  • Just finished the write-in revision of Ohio 2 — so…

    Just finished the write-in revision of Ohio 2 — so…

    I like it. I had to make one BIG change because I had a revelation when writing the first draft of Book 3 that had to be retrofitted into Book One and Two– And while I haven’t read Three since I wrote it, I think I had that revelation at the very beginning of Three.…

  • Today I hit a messy part of the manuscript…

    Today I hit a messy part of the manuscript…

    I had a small fight with myself over whether to keep two short-term characters and the scene that included them, and after some struggle and bouncing my arguments around with myself, I let them stay. They tie into an earlier incident, and my conclusion with them in this book does offer some promise that today’s…

  • Character Paranoia, and the State of Revision

    Character Paranoia, and the State of Revision

    I’m past the halfway mark on the read-through-note-taking process on Ohio 2. I have a lot of the first draft that I’ll be able to use as is. That’s good. I have written novels where I discovered the first draft was The Story I Don’t Want To Tell (and could still run into that in…