Start Time: 9:30 am, Friday, June 6th Finish Time: 9:30 am, Sunday, June 9th Hour Breakdown: Friday: 9:30-10:30 am: (1 hour); 1:15-2:15 pm: (1 hour) Saturday: 12:45-1:15 am: (1/2 hour); 12:15-1:15 pm: (1 hour); 1:30-4:30 pm: (3 hours); 5:50-10:10 pm (4 hours, 20 minutes) Sunday: 7:30-9:30 am: (2 hours) Total Hours: 12 hours, 50 minutes Total Books Read: 2.5 Total PagesContinue reading “48 Hour Reading Challenge Finish Line”
Tag Archives: fiction
Writing Shortcuts (Part 2): Getting Setting Right the First Time
Attention! This post was graciously sponsored by Grammarly. (Thanks Grammarly!!) I use Grammarly for proofreading because, as I’m sure all the zombies in the crowd will agree, two sets of eyeballs are better than one! (Is anyone else as excited for Halloween as I am?!) Now, onto our regularly scheduled program: writing shortcuts, first drafts, and setting.Continue reading “Writing Shortcuts (Part 2): Getting Setting Right the First Time”
Writing Shortcuts (Part 1): Things I Wish I Had Learned Before Draft #1
For the past five months I’ve been plowing my way through what I thought was going to be a revision of my WIP but morphed into a complete rewrite. Though I kept pieces of Draft #1, and used it as a loose outline of the chronological events that occur in the plot, ultimately I cutContinue reading “Writing Shortcuts (Part 1): Things I Wish I Had Learned Before Draft #1”
A Write-Tastic Summer
So, I went to a conference thing a few weeks ago. It was the first writing conference I’ve been to in a few years–since college, actually, when I used to drive all over the northeast region and crazy long miles away from the only town in Pennsylvania, fueled by a desperate need to find a fewContinue reading “A Write-Tastic Summer”
Build Your Dream Home (in Your Novel)
While walking to my neighborhood gym in the dark the other night, I crossed a bridge over a tiny creek that cuts through my backyard in the winter, a rush of freezing water, and dries up to non-existence in the summer months. I couldn’t see it, but I could hear the gurgle and it hadContinue reading “Build Your Dream Home (in Your Novel)”
I Love Free Books
How many of you use Goodreads? [counts hands] How many of you enter into those Goodreads giveaways? [counts hands] If you didn’t raise your hand for one or both of the above questions, CHANGE THIS RIGHT NOW. If you love books–which I assume you do, if you’re reading this, because I talk about them quiteContinue reading “I Love Free Books”
Outlining After the Fact, Remembering Where You’ve Been
In the popular terms of “pantser” and “plotter,” I’m not really sure what camp I fit in with yet. Besides the unique experience of NaNo, (which didn’t help me create anything of quality) I’ve never sat in front of a blank screen waiting for the characters to take action on their own accord, dumping whateverContinue reading “Outlining After the Fact, Remembering Where You’ve Been”
Cover Letter Mad Lib
When you’re submitting a short story to a literary journal, you send along a cover letter. It’s a little like a query letter, only briefer. This is the Mad Lib of my usual cover letter format: Dear [NAME], [1-2 sentences demonstrating that you’ve read their publication; mention how you came across their publication–are you aContinue reading “Cover Letter Mad Lib”
How to Write a Query Letter
So, the first order of business to get Claire Lawrence’s awesome book, Rooted in the Sky, published is the query letter. I struggled with this more than most writers do, I think, because I was ghostwriting it. Though I read Claire’s book, I didn’t know the plot and the characters inside out and backwards theContinue reading “How to Write a Query Letter”
Dear Indie Presses: Claire Lawrence’s Book Will Knock Your Socks Off!
Who, you may be asking, is Claire Lawrence? For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure of meeting her or taking one of her (spoiler alert!) fabulously inspiring creative writing classes, Claire Lawrence is a Creative Writing professor at my alma mater, Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania (and, I should mention, one of my favoriteContinue reading “Dear Indie Presses: Claire Lawrence’s Book Will Knock Your Socks Off!”
Hannah Karena Jones 