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 [...]
Wrangling the Details through Novel Writing Tools
One of the things that has been difficult to manage through the rewrite process, is the sheer volume of characters and places within the setting. As a result, the story was confusing for me to write, because this is the world that never ends. To help me wrangle this beast, I started looking at tools [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Knee-Deep in the Second Draft
So part of what I talked about before, when I mentioned a little bit about the revision process for Argentum, was the idea that I should change the story’s verb tense. Writing in first person with a present tense is somewhat challenging because the main character can have that “deer in headlights” perspective. At some [...]
Was Posting my First Draft a Bad idea? One Reader Didn’t Think So…
I’m working on my revisions to the second draft of Argentum, but I wanted to share with you a comment I received in email this past week. I’m sorry to see that you feel the experiment failed. I disagree. I found it very interesting. I never got around to finishing the whole thing so if [...]
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 [...]
What’s Going on Behind-the-Scenes at Violet War?
Dear Reader, My psychic powers tell me that this page is important to you, so I’d like to update you with more current news than what was on this page originally. To keep things straightforward, I’m going to date the updates so you’re aware of the chronology. September 2010 Since I last updated this page, [...]
