writing processes

Chronicling The Craft: FIRST DRAFT – DONE!

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What’s Next, and A Question For You

Chapters Completed: 35

Chapters In Progress: 0

Chapters Not Started: 0

“Chronicling The Craft” is an article series where I share my experience with writing my current work-in-progress (WIP), which is a fantasy novel. Every 5,000 words, I let readers know what I’ve accomplished since the previous article and share advice, discoveries, techniques, etc. Besides the word count in each article title, a “chapter ticker” at the top also tracks my progress as I use the skip-around / “writercopter” method to write the novel. Today’s installment celebrates the completion of the first draft.

SURPRISE! 😀  I had originally promised to post a new Chronicle when I hit the 115,000-word mark. However, between various blogging commitments and how quickly (on my standards) I was cranking out the remaining chapters, I decided to wait on a novel-writing update until it reached the most important milestone of them all. And now – 25 months and 132,000 words after I started with an outline and this crazy idea of a quest story with magic, life-size Faeries who can fly, shadow demons, and a female protagonist who is her own worst enemy – the first draft is finally DONE!  Continue reading →

Guest Blogging Today at Wendy Lu Writes

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Wendy Lu Writes log

Today I’m visiting Wendy Lu Writes to offer words of encouragement for slow writers. Inspired by my own personal frustrations with my writing “speed,” this article talks about boosting your productivity as a writer as well as embracing your unique writing process. Why both? Because as much as we want to write faster or be more efficient, we can’t criticize ourselves. Think of it as “self-compassion” for the writer. 😉

Click here to read “A Pep Talk for Slow Writers.”

By the way, Wendy is one of my colleagues at DIY MFA, and a fantastic writer. She covers a wide range of interests at her own site, from writing and current events, to food and makeup. If any of those topics pique your interest, make sure to check out her other articles.

It’s Blog-Hopping Time!

/ saraletourneau / 11 Comments

Bunny Hop

Many thanks to Nick at The Parasite Guy for nominating me to take part in the current World Blog Hop! This turned out to be a fun exercise, and one that’s easy yet challenging. Easy because it involves only two steps:

  1. Answer five questions.
  2. Nominate two bloggers to continue the hop.

So, how is it challenging? Well, if you read the five questions that follow, you might know why. 😉 Here we go!  Continue reading →