So, book club started the year with FIFTH BUSINESS, by Robertson Davies, this first of his Deptford trilogy. I read it in two days, enjoying the flawed narrator and the epistolary structure. This reads like a mature writer’s work, with hard-edged wisdom amid the old-fashioned storytelling.
But I have never thought that traits that are [...]
Part of my revision process is to make up sample copy for the back cover of the book; it keeps me on track as I cut and paste as well as showing if I’ve come up with a marketable story. Here is the current version:
What’s the harm in a little white lie?
Especially when it [...]
The month and next, I’m walking through my current WIP (work-in-progress), scene by scene, and then line by line and, ideally, word by word. The story is set in England in 1815, and I need to rein in my modern-English tendencies. “Felicitations” is OK (first used in 1628), but not “sugarcoat” (1858), though it is [...]
Finally got a grip on one of the slipperier characters in the new story, Sam. Kind of important, as he’s the hero/secondary lead. Not as much writing as character-sketching and thinking—15 hours of work, but only 2,100 new words. But the ice is breaking (or is it the logjam?) and I’m going to fly (swim, [...]