I’ve come to the conclusion that my writing process is akin to homebuilding. I just finished a solid draft of Blades of Grass and am prepping it to send off to Steve, agent extraordinaire. By prepping, I mean rereading and revising after my friend (and Nitpicky Reader) Atish submitted his notes on the manuscript. This latest draft was written while I was in the process of selling one home and moving into another, so indulge me through this metaphor. As…
How to choose readers for your manuscript “All readers are not created equal.” – Rachelle Gardner, literary agent When a writer finally gets to that coveted last page of a manuscript and arrives at what he or she considers to be a solid draft (whether it’s the seventh, eighth or twentieth draft!), it’s time to push that baby bird out of the nest to see if it flies. That means selecting a preferably small and carefully chosen group of people…
The Hunger Games. Twilight. The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Imagine each of these based-on-the-book movies without the kick-ass sountrack that accompanied it. How early did song selection really begin on these projects? In some cases, pretty darn early – even during the writing process of the book! (Okay, the first two examples maybe not so much, but Perks especially draws on the musical influences of its characters in the book, Charlie being the mix tape fan that he is!) The point is,…
Why you should approach your novel like a screenplay. Okay, okay. Chris Colfer isn’t really starring in Blades of Grass because, well, as of time of writing I haven’t even finished the book. So it getting optioned for a film adaptation? I think not. But that tantalizing headline is the onramp to my thoughts on writing novels so that your story plays out like a movie…at least in a sense. The two mediums aren’t terribly different, really. Riveting plot, well-developed…
Forgive me, Agent, for I have sinned. It has been two months since my last blog post. I've come to the conclusion that I'm a chronic sufferer of Lazy Writer Syndrome. Blades of Grass had been progressing quite nicely through the spring. Regular readers will know the ups and downs I’ve had with this project since starting it during last fall’s NaNoWriMo event. But, as the saying goes, life is what happens while you’re busy making other plans. I decided to…