Summer School

Been working like crazy on rewrites/edits for my new/old book, Heart’s High, this summer and it’s been going great. So much better than Ella and the Tie-down Man. The path is clearer, the problems easier to fix and I think the reason is some great help in the way of a learning.

I’m a firm believer of continued learning. I take classes as I go along the writer’s journey and this summer I’ve stumbled on some great help for my writing. Suggestions by other writers on their blogs, in articles, etc. have really given me some valuable resources and learning experiences. I’d say my writing has much improved by just thirty minutes a day reading. A great substitute for workshops or writer’s retreat when those options aren’t possible.

Never say I can’t. Say, I’ll have to do it a little different.

Outlining Your Novel, by K.M. Weiland: Regardless whether you are a pantster or a planner, this is a great book for improving your book’s plot. No do it this way or die. Just good sound advice, no matter how you write best. Her blog is a lot of help, too: Wordplay: Helping Writers Become Authors at www.kmweiland.com

Rivet Your Readers With Deep Point of View, by Jill Elizabeth Nelson: This is a tiny book. Just 61 pages, but packed with the best explanation and illustration of deep point of view, at least for me. For the first time I got it and Nelson gave lists of words to do searches with to help check on whether I stay in deep point of view, too. I like that because as I learn I forget sometimes. Even as I learn to use deep point of view better, it helps to check. We all get sloppy/lazy/forgetful once in a while.

Pair this with The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Expression, by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi: This is great, especially as a way to show emotions. So much more effective than to tell.  So much of our communication is non-verbal or subtext.  There are physical signs, mental responses and internal sensations. What I found in looking these emotions up in this book, whether you use the authors’ suggestions or use them for a jumping off place, is it seemed to help me keep in one character’s point of view. No  matter who’s POV I was in there was either something the character was seeing, feeling or sensing. Together with deeper point of view, it seemed to make my scenes more alive.  And you must take a look at their website: http://thebookshelfmuse.blogspot.com

You have to keep punching, because you’ve always got that puncher’s chance. –Otis Chandler, publisher, Los Angeles Times