AmiMaxine

Milestone #2

If my WIP were a car, it would be a well-established car. (My car, coincidentally, is nearing 260,000 miles…)

This post contains spoilers for All Falling Things. It was my intent from the moment I started writing this book that Alice and Stanley were not meant to end up together. I just wrote their break up. I knew it was coming since the first page – and even then, it wasn’t easy to do.Continue reading “Inspiration”

Milestone

Every genre has a set range of words that is typical of what is published. Agents will go so far as to note they will only look at novels that fall within this range (if you submit something outside said range, they likely won’t even look at it – as an English teacher, I understandContinue reading “Milestone”

Titles

Titles are hard. Seriously – I would pay someone to write titles for me. I tell my students in my writing courses that the intro/first paragraph of an essay/story is like meeting someone for the first time. It’s our first impression where we size each other up and decide whether we want to continue withContinue reading “Titles”

Casting Change: Lucas

I’ve decided to make a significant change to Lucas. I’ve been toying with the idea of him being a wheelchair user for some time now. I considered many different paths that would land him there before ultimately deciding that this would just be his life. I don’t want his story to become “inspiration porn.” IContinue reading “Casting Change: Lucas”

Character Questionnaire

If you are interested in writing novels and have no idea where to start, I highly recommend checking out Structuring Your Novel and Creating Character Arcs by K.M. Weiland. I always direct my students to Weiland’s Character Questionnaire as a means to get to know their characters (and I use it, too!). When writing a novel, weContinue reading “Character Questionnaire”

Subtle

How she lets me know when, in her opinion, I’ve worked enough.

Casting: Part Two

I’ve got a few more of my characters cast. This has been a really fun experience – something I think I will carry on for other things that I write. 🙂 This is Cat. Also known as Cote de Pablo from NCIS. She is Stanley’s long-time best friend. She is Italian and sassy and fiercelyContinue reading “Casting: Part Two”

Casting

I’m a visual person. I always do best when I can see something. If I’m to learn something new, show me – and then let me do it. (Kinesthetic is my second learning style. Auditory falls waaaay down on the list.) I also really love finding errors in continuity when watching a TV show orContinue reading “Casting”

Where Ideas Come From

It’s always a lovely surprise when a new idea bubbles up. It’s rarely from an expected place – just *pop* – there it is. No explanation. I can’t always connect the dots to where it came from, but I’ve also learned that it doesn’t matter. It’s just important to follow it. Sometimes, though, it comesContinue reading “Where Ideas Come From”