2 things I learned about the novel process while I wasn't writing my blog.

Yeah. I haven't been posting. I've been involved in novel writing. Too involved to actually complete a post. I've started several, but never got around to completing them, or proofreading, or any time consuming sort of thing like that which requires effort.

I was busy having writing epiphanies. Too busy for blog posts.
(Image: http://www.anna-om-line.com/)

Describing Setting: An Exercise

Someone in my writing group today was having difficulty moving her character from one location to the next. Yes, we had a writing group on Black Friday. We're writers and we like to spend Thanksgiving weekend writing.

She said she always gets stuck when transporting a character from one place to another. After several suggestions, including “Don't just write your characters walking around” and “Why not just put her in the next place?” and “Don't worry about it now. Get through your draft and come back to it later,” she informed us that she felt she needed to write that walk from place to the next so she could emphasize the setting. 

Setting must convey something. (Image courtesy of Mariluz Rodriguez on Flickr.)

Who is Your Narrator?

You've carefully thought out your characters and planned the plot and structure of a novel. Then, once your characters get moving and start revealing new aspects of themselves that you never expected, everything changes. They'll start doing things in your story that you hadn't planned and you'll find yourself going back to rework your plan. Again.

That's okay.

You are not the puppet master. You are a novelist. (Image courtesy of Matthijs and altered.)

As a writer of novels, you have to give up control. Planning gives you direction and helps you move through the story so you don't get stuck, but no matter how much you prepare, your characters will eventually take over.

There is one place you probably can retain a shred of your

27 Things You Know as a Writer in Middle Age

1. You know that writing is not a romantic endeavor. It's a struggle. It's sacrifice. It's not a party and drinking doesn't help. It's real love.

Michael Douglas as Grady Tripp in the 2000 film adaptation of the novel The Wonder Boys.
Grady is on page 2,611 of his second novel. 

2. You know that it takes a lot of sitting and that leads to

Issue 02 of Four Chambers has been realeased.

Jake from Four Chambers asked me to pass this along...

Four Chambers—what certain members of the community are calling Phoenix's pre-eminent literary magazine (but only in

How Procrastinating Helps You Write More

Procrastination is critical for a writer. Sometimes we get trapped in our writing schedule and our deadlines and our goals and our word counts. That can mean death to a novel. 

We get hung up on “Writers write”. Gawd, how many times has someone said (or written) that snarkily in response to someone discussing writing?

Really, it pisses me off.

You want to know when I've done the most and best writing? Those periods in life when I walk a lot, when I read a lot, when I get the chance to talk about writing.

Want to know when I don't write pages and pages or particularly well? When I'm working all the time, have my writing scheduled, and I'm insisting to the people around me, and to myself, that I need to sit down and write because I need to get it done.

Image: Nick Kenrick on Flickr (text added)