Four Chambers Press is looking for eight local authors...

Four Chambers Press is looking for eight local authors to respond to featured art installations at this year's Canal Convergence Water + Art + Light in partnership with Scottsdale Public Art February 24 - 26, 2017 at the Scottsdale Waterfront. Open to all literary genres, performance styles, and forms. Authors will receive a $100 stipend (and a $20 gift card from Changing Hands). Interested individuals can learn more and apply online at http://fourchamberspress.com/canal-convergence­. The deadline for

Stuck in the Middle? Getting Past the Middle: A Novel Project, Step 1

Stuck in the middle of your novel? Start again here.

When the path through your novel becomes obscured... (Image courtesy of Dianne Lacourciere "When Life Is Foggy" (Public Domain) by Artistic-touches)

Remind yourself of your novel's story question. Don’t go looking up your notes from the past to see what you wrote way back when you first started this project. Write what you see the moral question as

Getting Past the Middle: An Invitation to a Novel Project

I can start novels all day. I’m full of ideas, full of intriguing starts, lines, scenes, dialogue. I started writing my first book when I was 12. I also started writing my second book when I was 12. The problem has always been getting through the second half to the end.

Words. (sigh.) Image: Jim Pennucci "Words" (CC BY 2.0) by pennuja

I did finish one novel. It didn’t make much sense, in terms of traditional storytelling, but I was young (like 30), full of myself, and not really sure how to revise this tangle of words and scenes and

Writing about writing is like writing about air...

...or rather, it's like air itself. You know, like we barely notice air—other than in certain circumstances: when the fragrance of orange blossoms fills the air in spring, or when it's misty outside and light reflects off the fine droplets floating in the atmosphere, or when there is a sudden drop in temperature, or a million other things that might draw our attention to the air around us for a moment. Most of the time we hardly notice we're breathing it, and just like that, we shouldn't notice writing much, except for a few moments of beauty or strangeness or extremity.

So when I spend so much time writing about what is, essentially, air, I get a little fatigued. It's like walking around noting every inhale and every exhale and every shift in the breeze and the smell of the kitty litter. Yes, it's valuable to be aware, but I have other things to concern myself with. I mean, I have to change the kitty litter. I have things on my mind.

The Ratio of Scene to Narration

I recently had someone tell me this: "The balance between scene and narration is supposed to be 75% to 25%, actually."

As if novels can be written by numbers.

Notions such as this annoy me.

Being reductive is annoying. Image "Annoyed or Sleepy?" 
(CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) by Doug McGr.

I understand the need to try to figure out writing a novel when new to

A Simple Step-by-Step Guide to Revising the First Two Chapters of a Novel

Because the beginning of the novel sets up the rest of the book and, in a way, nearly dictates the everything that happens after it, I've been busy at work trying to revise the first two chapters of my novel. 

I'm pretty sure I have it all figured out.

There is a lot going into the process. This is a character-driven novel and the reader needs to connect to at least one of the characters and be at least interested in the others, while also having an idea of where things could go. Even if that's not where they go, the reader should be able to look back and recall that what happened was evident from the beginning.

At least that's what I'm going for at this moment.

Learn the simple steps to revising two chapters.   Image: "four eyes" (CC BY 2.0) by istolethetv

Today, I am sharing with you my easy 65-step process of re-writing the first two chapters of a character-driven novel so that the mystery behind revising will be revealed.