What Type of Story Gardener Are You?

How often have you answered the question, “Are you a pantser or a plotter?” with “I’m a bit of both” or “I’m somewhere in the middle”, or something along that line? In this video, at around the 50:30 mark, you can listen to Carrie Vaughn and Song of Ice and Fire (better known as Game […]

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Are You Leading with Your Weakest Link?

No matter how crucial a scene may be to your plot, if it makes you go “ick”, don’t lead with it. It seems obvious to me after it was pointed out, but at the time of writing and revising a particular story, it made sense to start at the “beginning”, even though I always found […]

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Noted

So, after about a week’s work and 6000 words, I’ve completed the synopsis (4000 words) and character notes (2000) for this new story. Now I’m satisfied that I can leave it to mature and allow other stories to fill my mind and be written, and when I come back to this story I will have […]

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Wired

What do news stories of horrific instances of child abuse in Austria and other European countries have in common with the birth in captivity of a pygmy hippo?  Somehow the combination has sparked the idea for a new teen novel that my muse has kept me awake over for the past two nights. I spent […]

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