Let’s talk about …
Get your mind out of the gutter. I was going to say “pens.” I spent an hour or so with the notebook and a pen this afternoon, hand-writing what turned out to be a good scene. It was full of both love and laughter — what more can you...
Sneak peek
I’ve had a busy Friday. I not only wrote about 800 words on Meg & Matt’s story, but also finally readied the talk I’m doing on dialogue at next Saturday’s NARWA meeting. I know, I know. I’ve been procrastinating. A more conscientious person would have started preparing long ago....
Another confession
I have another confession to make: I have trouble with my follow-through. This is true both in life (I think it’s why I can’t seem to reach my goal weight or balance my checkbook) and in my writing. More than one mostly finished manuscript languishes in my collection. Two...
Confession time
Hello. My name is Arlene, and I have a confession. Meg & Matt are real lookers … and I don’t mean that in a good way. I’m not kidding. I’ve noticed that Meg & Matt spend a lot of time looking — at each other, at the ground, at...
There’s something about a notebook
I love my iBook and wouldn’t trade it for anything — well, except perhaps a bright, shiny new MacBook Pro like the one a couple of my NARWA sisters have. 😀 However, I’ve discovered something this week: I still like writing things out longhand, with a spiral-bound notebook and...
Need for speed?
I didn’t get much writing done this weekend, opting instead to spend a romantic weekend with the Boyfriend. I did, however, get the chance to do a little reading. The February issue of RWR contained an intriguing article titled “Speed as an Antidote to Writer’s Block.” The gist is that...
Readin’ & Thinkin’
It’s better than wishin’ and hopin’, I guess. I did spend more than an hour writing today, so “Operation Treat Writing Like a Day Job” is still going strong on Day 3. The bad news is, it took me more than an hour to write about 550 words. I’m...
Inspired
Again, I went to my NARWA meeting … and again I was inspired by a great speaker. Jennifer Ashley talked about how to finish that manuscript and get it published. And as usual, I had to come back to Flagstaff and head straight to work when I wanted to...
Writing ‘guy’?
How is it that something I never thought much about before last week is now popping up everywhere? I just checked out The Seekers blog, and their latest post is about “writing ‘guy.'” Last week, after checking out another post, I found myself asking if guys really speak in...
More than I knew
I thought I was making good progress in getting my manuscript ready for the Golden Heart competition. I’ve edited 80 pages, trying to dig deeper into the minds of my characters and getting rid of a lot of “he said, she said” tags, replacing them with action tags instead....