2010.07.08 The Inbetween
In my setting, the Inbetween is a magical jail that holds the Condemned or crime-breakers from the Realm of magic. This place is kind of a setting within a setting; the Condemned are captured and then contained within a dimension that’s hidden within walls of stone in our world Above.
The walls need to be [...]
Flavor Fiction Friday: The First Piece
“I wish I wasn’t here,” Serafina whispered to herself. Grabbing the folds of her frilly dress, she closed her eyes. “I wish I was there.”
Serafina could hear her nursemaid scurrying down the long, candlelit hallway, her black dress swished behind her noisily as she rushed toward her hiding space. Reaching behind a very large fern, [...]
Following the Plot All The Way Through to the End
Wanted to drop by and share something interesting with all of you about what I’ve been learning lately.
So, in the first version of ARGENTUM, I wanted to explore the world of the Violet War and needed a story to do it. Did my first draft make an excellent novel? NO. Why? Because the story [...]
A Renewed Sense of Focus
After a lovely yet busy week, I was finally able to sit down this morning with my manuscript for ARGENTUM and focus on the rewrite. I hit today’s goal with no trouble whatsoever; the re-plotting I did to ensure the story had a much narrower focus is working beautifully. I feel that that need to [...]
It’s March and I’m declaring WAR…on my Manuscript!
Did you know that March was named after Mars, the Roman god of war? Well, this month I’m declaring war…on my manuscript! After going through a few drafts, there are a couple of things I need to revise:
1) The overall story needs to be consistent and a lot more simplified so that it can stand [...]
Revisions Update and a Look at 2010
Hi folks,
In December, I focused on the revisions for ARGENTUM through a December Writing Marathon that I had come up with. December was an extraordinarily busy month for several reasons, including a few additional projects that I did not expect to come up. Even though I didn’t get as much done as I wanted to, [...]
New Outline and December Writing Marathon
Hi Folks,
The first three chapters are typically part of the query letter package for an agent. Concerned that I was getting off-target with the revisions, I threw together the revisions and got some feedback. When I did, I discovered two things:
1) I have created a big. damn. world.
2) My story lost its focus.
I spent some [...]
Dear Monica: Why Are The Revisions Taking So Long?
When I started working on revisions for the novel back in the Spring, I knew I was going to have to make some adjustments in my schedule.
Before I started ARGENTUM, I often worked on a contract basis, which meant that someone handed me a contract and I said, “Okay, I’ll write for you.” Then, [...]
Goodbye Chapter One, I’ll Miss You
I feel like I turned a corner this past weekend, because the last two weeks have been…painful. I knew I needed to change the verb tense of my exposition from present to past, but I wasn’t sure how that was going to work for the beginning of the story.
Instead of opening the novel with [...]
First Drafts and the Evolution of Argentum
So if you’ve been following how Argentum has been developing, you’ve probably read a post or two where I describe a little bit about my writing process. Well, this past weekend at OddCon, there were a lot of conversations that I had with other writers about their writing process. When I mentioned I was offering [...]
