Turning an Idea into a Plot

good advice

Uninspired Writers

Good morning writers, I hope you’ve had a great week.

I took a little time out this week, and took myself to Edinburgh for a few days. It’s an amazing city, and my aim was to spend some time alone, plotting novel 2 ahead of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month).

Whether you’re planning to take part in NaNo or not, you may sometimes find yourself struggling to turn an idea into a full plot. I know do. So I’m going to share with you my method for turning a fledgling idea into a full story outline. (Please note, this is not a guaranteed guide, it works for me but may not work for everybody.)

Take a look at the following eight steps, to turn your novel idea into a plot:

1. Spend some quiet time thinking
The first thing I do when I have the stirrings of a new…

View original post 709 more words

Advertisements

It’s Finally Here!

Here in Texas, the first day of fall sometimes slips by virtually unnoticed, but this year was an exception. It began with a downpour. Heavy dark clouds, a little fog, and chilly weather set the tone for the day.

Made me want to pull out my recipes. After months of salads and quick meals, nothing sounds (or smells) better than a pot of homemade soup and hot bread. I’ve already changed my comforter and added another thin cotton quilt for cooler nights to come. My tub of fall decorations is sitting in the living room, waiting.

Soon it’ll be time to get out and look at all the fall decorations, search for the red mums and colorful pumpkins I use on my front porch. October is a busy month. Our town hosts Autumn Trails every year so there’s something going on every weekend. My daughter and I usually go to the Arts and Crafts show for her birthday. My sister and I plan to go to Canton to celebrate our birthday at the end of the month. And every year my son and daughter-in-law host a Halloween party.

I’m looking forward to it.

Advice On Submitting to Agents

Good advice!

Uninspired Writers

Morning world builders, I hope you’ve all had a great week.

Last Sunday I sent of my first ever submissions. I sent my carefully crafted work out into the world, and now I am up against the long wait for inevitable rejections and potential feedback.

It’s taken a long time to reach this point and I’ve needed to do a lot of research, and seek a lot of help, to get here. So I want to share with you some of the advice that has helped me, and some of the things I’ve learned. Please share your advice in the comments, as there’s still plenty I don’t know.

---

1. Make sure your novel is finished
This is the first advice you’ll see anywhere. It’s really tempting, when you’ve had an amazing idea, to pitch it before it’s ready. But the truth us, most agents want to hear from writers who…

View original post 758 more words

Remembering 9/11

Always

Nicholas C. Rossis

Remembering 9/11

View original post

Writing Is Easy And It Is Hard

via Writing Is Easy And It Is Hard

What kind of editing do I need? by Kerri Miller…

Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog

on Utopian Editing site:

You’ve written something. You’ve poured all your skill, creativity, and time into it. You’ve made sacrifices to reach the finish line, and you can now congratulate yourself on a job well done.

But what’s next?

You know that something needs to happen between the completed draft and publication. Trouble is, you aren’t quite sure what. There are so many types of editing:

• Developmental (substantive) editing
• Fact-checking
• Line editing
• Copyediting
• Proofreading
• Formatting

How are you supposed to know what services you need? 

Continue reading HERE

View original post

Writing An Agent Submission Letter

Short and sweet…good information

Journey To Ambeth

After seven days of writing about an otherworldly weekend away with The Silent Eye, it’s back to reality with a rather prosaic thud – this post is all about crafting the agent submission letter.

I’ve written before about submitting your manuscript to agents – while I don’t consider myself by any means an expert, I have had a bit of experience in sending the things out. I also attended a workshop some time back at Bloomsbury, where a couple of London agents shared their idea of a perfect submission letter, and several other agents have commented that my submission package stood out from the others (although no-one has taken me on board as yet – boo-hoo).

So, how do you structure the all-important letter? (I say all-important because it’s the first opportunity you have to make an impression, and we all know how important first impressions are). Well, here are…

View original post 420 more words

Everyone interested in time travel, meet here yesterday

bluebird of bitterness

View original post

Author SummerRead Exchange-Viviana Mackade

I’m visiting Viviana Mackade today. Stop by and join the conversation about alternate realities. https://viviana-mackade.blog/2018/07/26/in-my-own-shadow-by-susan-a-royal-and-meet-the-character/

~Music to Our Ears~

Music has always had a special place in our family.

 

Our older kids had record players before they could read. I had to draw pictures on the records so they could pick out the ones they wanted to play. By the time the youngest came along, we’d moved up to a Fisher Price tape recorder. Our house was filled with the sounds of Peter and The Wolf, Rudolph the Red nosed Reindeer, The Muppets. Old songs like Pop the Magic Dragon. Popeye the Sailor Man, and every Disney song imaginable.

 

We’ve continued our love of music. Traditional, Classic, Rock, Country. Some of just about everything. It brought our family closer. Drew it together. And still does. Even after all these years.

 

My husband passed away in 2015, but he’s always in our hearts. Whenever we share a new song with each other, someone always says “You know, Dad would like this.”