Category: Writers on Writing

Setting, Writers on Writing

Writing the second draft

Mandy Webster
The Story Thus Far
My story thus far is full of dialog but lacking in the description department. How about yours? | The Story Thus Far (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Happy first day of autumn!

I am currently working my way through draft #2 of the novel I wrote for the Write Your Novel this Summer Challenge. What goes into a second draft probably varies from one writer to the next. Dialog and action come easy for me. Description? Not so much. I can do description, but it simply does not pour out of me as dialog does. For me, description takes a lot of work.

When writing my first draft, I literally listen to the voices in my head and write down what they say. I am nothing more than a glorified court reporter. The result is what I think is an exciting story that is set in the empty expanse of Vagueland. While the dialog thrills me, the average reader would be lost in an attempt to determine where and when, exactly, this story takes place. I can picture it, but I haven’t yet built it on the page. Continue reading “Writing the second draft” →

Blogging, Writers on Writing

10 Day Writing Blogger Challenge: Day 8

Mandy Webster

Day 8 - 10-day-write-blog-challengeDay 8 Prompt: Post about your writing routines / rituals / habits or quirks.

One of the best ways I’ve found for me to be productive as a writer is to get up early in the morning, make a cup of coffee, and sit down at my kitchen table with a notebook first thing without allowing myself to go anywhere near my computer. As soon as I sit down at the computer, I can count on losing several hours of writing time.

If I really need to get something done in the afternoon, then a trip to the library or a coffee shop helps as well. Sometimes I just need to write in a different location. Continue reading “10 Day Writing Blogger Challenge: Day 8” →

Writers on Writing

Wannabe Writer Wednesday: An interview with Mark L. Anderson

Mandy Webster
Mark L. Anderson writer
Mark L. Anderson’s first novel, BLACK WOLF LODGE, was published in 2010. He is currently on schedule to publish his second novel, The Bet, by the end of this summer.

Welcome to Wannabe Writer Wednesday! This week’s interview is with author Mark L. Anderson.

Mark’s Bio

I grew up in Indiana, attended high school and college in Ohio, and have lived the last 40 years in Illinois. Since retiring from teaching in 2007, I’ve found time to get serious about that writing dream. My first novel BLACK WOLF LODGE was published in 2010, and I currently have two short stories, “Hobo Willie” and “Pinewood Farm” available as Kindle editions. Most weekday mornings, after that first cup of coffee, I am usually at work on my MacBook, realizing that chasing that writing dream is an ongoing thing–one that seems to become more exciting with each passing day!

Mark’s Interview

1. Tell us a little about your current work in process. Continue reading “Wannabe Writer Wednesday: An interview with Mark L. Anderson” →

Writers on Writing

Wannabe Writer Wednesday: An interview with James Hedrick

Mandy Webster
Writer James Hedrick
James Hedrick is a PhD Candidate in Political Science living in Washington, DC. He spends his days writing about politics and his evenings writing about anything but. He will soon self-publish the first book in his urban fantasy series Hell Against Texas entitled Cauldron Bubble.

Welcome to Wannabe Writer Wednesday! This week’s interview is with urban fantasy writer, James Hedrick.

1. Tell us a little about your current work in process.

I’m currently working on an urban fantasy series titled Hell Against Texas. I submitted three short stories in the universe to Sword & Laser’s Anthology (fingers crossed) and I’m almost done with the final draft of the first book in the series, Cauldron Bubble. The first draft of Book Two, Shepherd’s Crossing, is about halfway done and I’ve got a couple chapters of Book Three, Fire Burn, drafted. I’ve outlined a couple of books passed that.

2. What’s your day job?

I’m a PhD Candidate in Political Science and will soon be starting a consulting job in the Washington, DC area.

3. When do you find time to write? Continue reading “Wannabe Writer Wednesday: An interview with James Hedrick” →

Writers on Writing

Wannabe Writer Wednesday: An interview with Amy Burney

Mandy Webster

This is the first Wannabe Writer interview in what I hope will be a regular feature here at Write on the World.

Amy Burney
A lifelong avid reader of fantastical fiction, Amy Burney has a Bachelor of Integrative Studies. In college, Amy took language arts courses to understand what makes a good young adult novel, and reviewed many literary works for their merit in classrooms. Amy is writing a young adult fantasy novel to contribute to the field of young adult fantasy, and to share her main character’s story with the world. She grew up in the Harry Potter generation.

Q: Tell us a little about your current work in process.

A: Right now I’m working on a young adult fantasy novel involving a little of “real life” and some of a fantasy realm.  The main character is a high school girl who’s curious about mysterious occurrences happening in her everyday life.  That leads her to discovering a new world, including new creatures and characters.  She goes on some big adventures, and learns about herself.

Q: What’s your day job?

A: I’m a freelance writer for some online companies.

Q: When do you find time to write?

A: That can be hard sometimes.  I try to commit to writing 2000 words a day.  I normally just sit myself in a chair and say that I won’t do anything else until I write.

Q: When you were 5 years old, what did you want to be when you grew up? How does that figure into what you are doing now? Continue reading “Wannabe Writer Wednesday: An interview with Amy Burney” →

Writers on Writing

Coming soon: Wannabe Writer Wednesdays

Mandy Webster
Wannabe writer wednesday Wordle
Join us for Wannabe Writer Wednesdays.

Okay, so yesterday I put out a little teaser about a new blog thing I want to do. It’s called Wannabe Writer Wednesdays, and the goal is to highlight writers who are in the same boat I am in. In other words, I want to interview writers who either haven’t yet published anything or have published next to nothing. I want to highlight the wannabes like me rather than the already famous.

Why would I do such a thing? Well, several of the blogs I follow interview writers who are already publishing. These are usually writers who are marketing a newly released book. While I enjoy reading these interviews, and have even learned a thing or two from them, I think it would be equally interesting to read about writers who are still in the wannabe stage. Misery loves company, right? Continue reading “Coming soon: Wannabe Writer Wednesdays” →

Novel Writing, Writers on Writing

You should write your novel this summer

Mandy Webster

 

Stephen King, American author best known for h...
I bet even the King of horror probably thinks his first drafts totally suck. | Stephen King, American author best known for his enormously popular horror novels. King was the 2003 recipient of The National Book Foundation’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. Taken at the 2007 New York Comicon (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A cousin-friend recently sent me the first page of a novel she’s writing and asked me if I thought it was any good. She writes some beautiful prose, but I thought she was a little too worried about the “goodness” of her novel at this stage in the writing process. So, I gave her the following advice:

I’ll tell you what I recommend (and a lot of famous published authors seem to agree): Just sit down and mind-dump your story without thinking about whether it’s any good. Stephen King wrote a really great memoir on writing, where he talks about how you should never spend more than a season (3 months) writing a rough draft. Your rough draft will probably seem like garbage, but that’s how it is for everyone (even Stephen King). Once you have your story dumped out on the page, then you can go back and start revising it to make it “good.” Continue reading “You should write your novel this summer” →

Novel Writing, Writers on Writing

How to get your story line back on track

Mandy Webster
Master’s Thesis
Should I put my story line aside for now and concentrate on what I need to accomplish for thesis? | Master’s Thesis (Photo credit: hsivonen)

I’ve been zipping through the story line of my novel for the past couple of months in an effort to get the entire story on the page without worrying about revisions. I’ve hit 46,472 words, and I’ve been feeling pretty good about the whole thing. That is, until a few days ago when I got the idea that my story line had somehow veered away from where I wanted it to go.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m open to changing direction when it’s appropriate. However, it seems like this time I have turned down a dead-end. The story train has derailed, and I’m left wondering how to pick up the pieces of the train wreck and put it back on the right track. Continue reading “How to get your story line back on track” →

Novel Writing, Writers on Writing

Discovering the names of novels

Mandy Webster
English: Statistic of titles the English Short...
But where did all of those titles come from? | English: Statistic of titles the English Short Title Catalogue categorised as “fiction”, 1600-1799. black line: yearly production, red line: ten year moving average (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Names and titles used to be the bane of my existence.

I can’t begin to tell you how much time I have wasted agonizing over names for characters and titles for stories. I have recently realized that those names and titles will eventually reveal themselves to you once you learn to listen for them.

I’ve had a name for my current novel-in-progress for some time, but I haven’t been entirely happy with it. It’s okay, but it doesn’t really sum up the novel in the way I want it to. But, I hate thinking about titles, so I just went with it and kept writing. After all, there’s no sense agonizing over a title at the expense of writing the story. Continue reading “Discovering the names of novels” →

Novel Writing, Writers on Writing

The ghosts of journals past

Mandy Webster
Old journal full of freewrites
This is the pretty notebook that caught my eye the other day while I was digging around in a drawer. Who would have guessed the treasures this old journal would hold?

Do you remember a while back when I was talking about my new project and how it had just come to me out of the blue? At the time, I thought my new novel project was this fresh idea I had that just took off like I’d been mulling it over my entire life even though I just thought of it a couple of months ago. That was until this morning when I stumbled across an old journal.

I was digging around for a notebook I could use for freewrites and scene ideas so I could keep those separate from the chronological chapters I’ve been writing one after another in my current journal. I remembered seeing a pretty notebook in the bottom of a desk drawer the other day while digging around for something else I never found and figured that one would do the job.

So, I went back and dug this notebook out of the bottom of that drawer and flipped it open to see if it had enough empty pages in it for me to squeeze in some free writes. Imagine my surprise when I realized this notebook was full of old freewrites that turned out to be directly related to my current story! Continue reading “The ghosts of journals past” →