novel

All posts tagged novel

Reading storm (and writing! Or – wow it’s been a while!)

Posted by Frank Cote on March 10, 2012
Posted in: books, Life, Novel writing, Writing. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , .

I’m still alive and writing!

The workshop which started in January has been a surprising amount of effort (In a good way!) and between that and my own writing efforts, I haven’t been updating this blog as much as I’d like.  I will miss it (and the folks in it) when it ends.

Thankfully I’m up at Stupid O’ Clock this morning and the munchkin is fast asleep and I’m in a procrastinating mood (I should be working on either my outline or my assignment).  It’s a perfect time to write an update!

So what’s going on?

Read on!

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Feel the burn. One Hundred Thousand Words and climbing

Posted by Frank Cote on August 31, 2011
Posted in: Endings, Life, Novel writing, Writing. Tagged: , , , , , , .

It’s the 31st.  It’s a brand new day.  I’m flush with a second back to back NaNoWriMo win.

The manuscript is not done however and I’ve put in another 500 words this morning and more are coming.  I know that if I stop and take a break because I’ve made the word count, there’s a chance I won’t finish the book.  It would be a shame.  A finished first draft is easily moved up on deck when you decide to revise it.  An aborted draft is just, well, unfinished and it’s hard to put a decent ending on something when you let it sit too long.

Whereas, you should let a manuscript stew a while before going back for revision.

So how did August go in general?  Impressions and thoughts below:

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Are you INSANE? Why yes I am.

Posted by Frank Cote on June 30, 2011
Posted in: Beginnings, Novel writing, Writing. Tagged: , , , , .

I always consider myself a pretty easy going guy.  I try not to get too intense.   I’m at the age where being laid back is definitely a good thing, especially when you have the extra pounds I do.   Even when working on my writing goals this year, I’ve been calm, considered and rational.

I’m noticing that, historically speaking, calm, considered and rational isn’t when I get the best results.

Time to do something crazy.

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Argh! I hate being told I’m doing it wrong, especially when I want to do it!

Posted by Frank Cote on June 23, 2011
Posted in: Beginnings, Novel writing, revisions, Writing. Tagged: , , , , .

Argh.  I’m doing the very first thing Nathan says not to do!

Revenant my WIP starts out like this.  My main character wakes up.  There’s a very good reason for this, in my opinion.  It establishes something important about my main character.

I’ll give it some thought, but I doubt I’ll change it.  I’ll just hope it falls into the area that Nathan Bransford’s thinking about when he says:  “Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying you can’t use one of these openings or that there aren’t good books that start this way.”

I will do what he says next:

“I am saying that you should think once, twice, and five thousand times about using these.”

I still doubt I’ll change it.

Manuscript rewrite – The Plan!

Posted by Frank Cote on February 24, 2011
Posted in: Beginnings, Novel writing, Writing. Tagged: , , , .

I’ve been playing around with a words a bit lately and having a lot of fun, but I’ve decided that it’s time to get to work!

I have a first draft finished.  I’m confident in the story and I’m excited enough about it that I want to take it all the way.  It’s been a while since I finished the first draft, so I’ve spent the last week or so getting back into my notes and re-reading.

There are a lot of problems.  I see nothing that can’t be fixed, but it won’t fix itself.  It needs a serious rewrite and here’s how I plan to get it done!

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