Category Archives: Building Character

Reviving Dead Spots One way to get unstuck in filling out a story

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One quarter to one third of the way through a novel, I sometimes hit this dead spot. I’m not sure where the story is going. For instance, this happened with Building Character (Book 2 of the Northwoods Trilogy).  Instead of a linear progression from one scene to the next I had a beginning and an end, but there was this entire middle part missing. I wondered how I was going to fill it in. There didn’t seem to be much room for story there. One character was in transit to the location of the other characters and I wondered how I … Continue reading →

Projects, Pitfalls, Promise surgery, weight-loss, organic food and current writing projects

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Shame on me. I haven’t posted a blog in a long time. SO much going on with us lately. Dealing with sudden health issues happening all at once, burned out, exhausted, feeling ill all the time, I was certainly not inspired to write. So I decided to take a 6-month sabbatical. It turned into 8 months when I found out in the middle of it I needed major surgery. So, I had to face my #2 biggest fear, (surgery) and I’ve been recovering from a full abdominal hysterectomy, and after almost 8 weeks, I’m still having some issues, which I … Continue reading →

Streaming & Quilting: Differing Methodologies in Novelwriting

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I often discuss methodology with other writers. While in general we might share certain features, we can have completely different methods for writing a book. Some writers have this uncanny, subconscious method that seems to flow from a Muse and out onto the page, with the writer as conduit. It seems amazing to me that they can start at the beginning (the beginning!?) and write straight through until the book is done. A linear stream of subconsciousness. No major tweaking of plot points or planting of red herrings {1}, rarely any insertion of missing foreshadowing or details that have to … Continue reading →