‘Nothing so solidly anchors a work of fiction in readers’ minds as knowing when and where something is taking place.’ Ron Rozelle, Description & Setting. Nancy Kress says in Beginnings, Middles, & Ends, ‘The truth is, you have about three paragraphs in a short story, three pages in a novel,
As we weave our way through the process of trying to get at least one novel published, many options are presented for editing that we try out to determine if they will work for us. I watched a video about editing and in it an author said that you will
If your first novel is driving you demented, stop and write a second novel. Even the act of writing the first draft of a second novel can be liberating. It tells you that there is more than one story inside you and you have the capability to produce it. Now
Getting sick and forced to stay in bed does have its advantages; I got to start reading books I have stacked in a pile of ‘must reads’. In fairness, the ‘must read’ pile has been growing for ages; it takes up a whole shelf in my study so it’s about
Revision is tough. I’ve done very little over the last week, couldn’t write at all for four days. Felt bad. Tried to be positive. Did not work. I’d decided to aim for a target of 10,500 words to be revised every week and I’m not making that target. My aim
I’m an Irish, British, French-Italian/South African, movie loving, science fiction novelist. I live in the south-east of Ireland and love that one mug of coffee in the morning to welcome in the day!