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Tag: writing life

Posted
April 22, 2015
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On Writing
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Skipping to the End

I am officially halfway through my rewrite! It feels amazing. So, guess what I’m going to do? I’m skipping to the end. Why, you ask? Because, after many rewrites of many first drafts, I’ve learned (finally) that writing the middle is almost impossible if you don’t know how the story is going to end. Some people say you should even write the end first.
I tried that and it didn’t really work for me. It didn’t work because the beginning is my favorite part to write. It’s the dating stage of a relationship where you get to know all of the little quirks that make your characters tick. It’s the foundation of the story. It’s world building. And it’s no fun if I know how it’s all going to play out. In the beginning, I just write. It doesn’t matter if it makes sense or not. I’m a pantster (no plan, no outline) at this stage. At about thirty pages, maybe more sometimes, I start to work out an outline and some character bios. The outline is loose, but I like to have a general idea about where I’m going.
And by the middle, I need to know EXACTLY where I’m going. That’s why I am starting to write the ending now. Then, if I need to throw in some earlier clues or a stronger lead-up, I can do this without having to rewrite the whole darn thing.

Posted
April 15, 2015
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On Writing
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Writing Life…Starting at the Beginning with an Authors Platform

Today, I began the journey of building my “Authors” platform. I knew this was an important step, but I’ve been dragging my feet a bit because whenever I get minutes on the computer, I usually try to write. If I’m blogging or posting pictures or telling everyone about my day, then I’m not writing. And those minutes are precious.

Smeagol

I’ve already got a bit of a head start–I started this blog a bit ago. And some of the other pieces are in place, though not used very well. My first step was to change my screen name to these different sites to be closer to my actual name (without a lot of numbers or nicknames in them). I had no idea how much this work this was going to be or how many sites I should be a part of.

The first was Facebook. That one was kind of a no brainer, but I truly don’t like Facebook that much anymore. I got so tired of reading about the trivial nuances of my friend’s lives that I gave up on it. And now, it looks more like an informative magazine. Either way, I started a professional Facebook page and you can find it here if you’d like.

I already have a Twitter. So, that’s done.

I read somewhere (actually lots of places) that I need a Google + account. I haven’t done that yet, but it’s on the list.

I already have a Pinterest account. This one is my favorite. I love Pinterest! Maybe it’s all of the pretty pictures.

Next, was Tumblr and Instagram.

This was starting to feel like a lot of work. The last thing on my list was to get a website using my first and last name. I went on to GoDaddy.com and signed up.

Okay, step 1: Building an Author’s Platform is started. It’s a work in progress, but at least I started it!