This past week I’ve become intimately familiar with the characters in my novel. I gave birth to them, so we already know each other well. BUT. Now having reread my own novel a handful of times (and if you know me, I never read a book twice so this process is super weird), I know…
Tag: writing
The Airport Bar
What is it about an airport bar? I don’t honestly know; I’m asking the question quite openly. What is it about an airport bar that makes it feel more inviting than a regular neighborhood or downtown bar? There is never going to be a live band, certainly no dance floor….at least not that I’ve come…
Are You a Great Multitasker?
Multitasker: A person who can successfully engage in more than one activity at the same time or serially, switching one’s attention back and forth from one activity to another without disruption to progress of the activities. I made the above definition up, didn’t find one online that I liked. And yes, I had three web searches running…
Pych-Horror – short story start
Two weeks ago I asked you to vote on which storyline I should attempt for a workshop and by far the vote pointed towards the Pych-Horror piece. (See the original post here: Prompted Writing Challenge, part 1.) I had never written in this genre nor do I read it. Alas, that is the point of a writer’s…
Prompted Writing Challenge, part 1
I joined a writer’s workshop today. The challenge was to take a random prompt and write the synopsis of a book in 3 different genres. The prompt I got was “A man is haunted by the victims of a serial killer with his same name” and my genres were chicklit, pulp fiction, and psychological horror. Now I have to…
Recognize Your Needs
Some people have no trouble saying “I need”. Often I find that those who can say this so easily actually mean “I want”. Needs are deeper, harder to recognize, harder to ask for. They are not always harder to obtain though. When you can take a moment to sit with yourself and really think about…
Writing Book #2…when #1 is still a draft
I can devote 1.5 days a week to writing. In that case, I can write a book in about 14 weeks, or within the 4-month time window I have to wait and see if anyone wants to publish the first one.
The Query Letter pitch
Now I have to sum all that up in an enticing 5-10 sentence pitch and make that paragraph #2 of my three paragraph query letter to submit to a book agent. If the pitch isn’t good enough, they will never even look at my manuscript.
The jump between 2010 and 2017
In 2010, I had my first real mid-life crisis. My husband had volunteered for a tour in Iraq. I was in a losing battle at work where my boss was making decisions that were taking the company into financial ruin. And I had my 30th birthday.
Anna Contrell 