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Books read in September and October

AlisonLeave a comment

Storm Glass by Maria V. Snyder

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

Rampant by Diana Peterfreund

The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery

Impossible by Nancy Werlin

Sometimes the Magic Works – Lessons from a writing life by Terry Brooks

Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

Beatle Meets Destiny by Gabrielle Williams

Can You Keep A Secret? by Sophie Kinsella

Thirteenth Child by Patricia Wrede

Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder by Joanne Fluke

On the Edge by Ilona Andrews

Poison Study (re-read) by Maria V. Snyder

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

Combine to one?

AlisonLeave a comment

October nears its close.  Which means November is around the corner. You may be thinking “So?”  But what November means is NaNoWriMo.  I have been excited for November for a while. Turning over the story beginnings from my writing notebook in my head. It’s like taking samples at the candy counter, you want to make sure it is good before you invest in a whole package.

However, yesterday I was struck by an idea. My WIP – in order to fix some plot issues – needs to go from the ‘two or more books’ to a stand-alone novel.

Can I do that?

Can I condense the plethora of ideas into one book? I’m pretty sure I can, and it will be a richer – more engaging story. And it will have that satisfying moment at the end of a complete finish.

So, now my dilemma. Do I do NaNo, or do I dive into my WIP and work on re-plotting the story there? Hmmmm.

 

Dilemma

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True confessions:

There are so many amazing websites out there on writing.  I start reading them and I get excited about my story, about what I can do with it, about what I should do with it. And then I spend so much time reading about what I need to do that I don’t have time to do it. I need to find some balance.

Books read in, well – since I reported last.

AlisonLeave a comment

The Fairy Godmother by Mercedes Lackey

Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg

The Forrest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

Wings by Aprilynne Pike

Dragon Flight by Jessica Day George

Archer’s Quest by Linda Sue Park

Darkside by Tom Becker

Obernewtyn by Isobelle Carmody

The Amaranth Enchantment by Julie Berry

Don’t Judge a Girl by her Cover by Ally Carter

The Demon’s Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan

Dead is the New Black by Marlene Perez

Dead is So Last Year by Marlene Perez

Dead is a State of Mind by Marlene Perez

Evermore by Alyson Noel

Proven Guilty by Jim Butcher

White Knight by Jim Butcher

The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White

I believe there are more, but late spring I stopped writing them down. I will do better at keeping track.

New Goal-

AlisonLeave a comment

I have set a new goal for myself. I am going to write 100 words a day, five days a week. It doesn’t seem like a lot, but every little bit helps. I also find that once I start I end up doing a lot more than the 100 words. However, having a smaller goal makes it seem like a managable bite. So far in revisions I have added about 7,000 words (23 pages) of dialoge, character advancement, and explanations. It will be a much more solid story when I am done. (and ready for the next revision round;) . )

Old times

AlisonLeave a comment

Long ago- in a blogging universe far away- I began a different blog for my writing. I just imported it to this site. You will note the jump in dates from May to August. Consider this me starting anew, but carrying a bit of baggage (baggage I still wanted to share with everyone).