By J. Timothy King on December 11, 2009
Drunk Cat, © 2005 Ibrahim Owais CC BY-SA 2.0
As a writer, I often get asked, how do you revise a novel? Actually, I don’t get asked that. Someone does often ask me what word he wanted to use, as though I as a writer should have a command of words. (I don’t. But that’s a different post.) Of course, if I knew what word he wanted to use, then he would have already put his his thoughts into words for me, and he would already know what word he wanted to use, all by himself, without me telling him.
But no one ever asks me how to revise a novel. Yet it’s a process every great novelist needs to master. And as I happen to be in the middle of revising my latest upcoming novel, I thought I’d spend a little time today demystifying this essential process for you. Fortunately for all budding authors, revision is as simple as 1-2-3, if you just follow the following steps. Continue reading “Revising Your Novel”
Posted in Ardor Point, Books, Humor, Writing | Tagged novel, revision
By J. Timothy King on December 10, 2009
We got a wonderfully funny letter from Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Massachusetts today, partially reproduced here (click to enlarge):
The letter goes on to explain that certain of our prescriptions, we could get them home delivered for $00 less than what we pay to pick them up! How cool is that! The flip-side lists the prescriptions, in a completely empty list, with the proviso (denoted by the double-asterisk) that if our doctor prescribed any prescription for short-term use, it may not apply.
-TimK
Posted in Humor |
By J. Timothy King on December 9, 2009
Revising a novel can be an exciting and trying process. Exciting, because you get to see a story you’ve been working on for weeks (or longer) finally taking final form. Revision is also when you finalize the themes in your story, because the characters’ story arcs have reached their final form, and you get to see them told through the story. In my case, I started with a hot list of issues I needed to address throughout the manuscript. But as I began reading, I saw that I had already been addressing them, even from the first chapters.
Revising can be a trying process, though, too, because you run across chapters or scenes that… well, they suck. And even though this is your baby, even though you’ve poured your soul into it, though you may even identify with it, you must be brutal. If whole sections of it drone on, you have to get rid of them. If an inspired scene doesn’t fit into the final story, you have to get rid of it. Be merciless.
Above is a scan on one of the less than stellar first-draft pages. (Click it to make it bigger.) As you can see, I’ve crossed most of it out. And of what’s left, I’m not too thrilled. This scene does have some conflict in it, so it can rock. But I have to get rid of anything that I can, and abbreviate the rest until it’s almost not there.
But overall, I’m very happy with the way this novel is turning out. Sometimes, reading this, I feel like I’m the best writer on the planet.
Okay… Coming back down to earth now.
-TimK
P.S. I have a humorous piece queued up for Friday about revising a novel. Stay tuned.
Posted in Ardor Point, Books, Writing | Tagged novel, revision |
By J. Timothy King on December 4, 2009
A fun article I ran across while catching up on my reading today. Mentioned in ADVANCE for Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists (a health-industry trade website I’ve been reading in order to understand one of my fictional characters): a soon-to-be published study indicates that the smell of a clean room makes people behave better. Continue reading ““Dirty†Really Is Dirtier”
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged psychology, SLP, speech-language pathology |
By J. Timothy King on November 30, 2009
Between 11:59 PM tonight and 12:00 AM tomorrow morning, I write 1,182 words, simply by switching from the NaNoWriMo word-count tool to the one built into my word processor.
I have 7 more scenes to write to complete From the Ashes of Courage, and most of those are epilogue. Today, I penned over 4,000 words, straight through the black moment, and now I’m perched on the other side. I decided to stop for the day after the following paragraph, which just about made me cry: Continue reading “Word Counts and Words That Count”
Posted in Ardor Point, Books | Tagged NaNoWriMo
By J. Timothy King on November 25, 2009
This year, we’re making pies for our family Thanksgiving feast. All of my brothers and their families all gather at my parents for the day. C is making pumpkin and lemon meringue. But my favorite, I think, is still my own Lazy Man’s Chocolate Pie. Hardly original, but still full of sugar and calories, and the combination of shortbread and chocolate makes it work. Continue reading “The Lazy Man’s Chocolate Pie”
Posted in Food, Recipes | Tagged chocolate, pie |
By J. Timothy King on November 24, 2009
I ran into an interesting issue today with one of the characters of From the Ashes of Courage.
In brief, Gail and George divorced years ago, and they haven’t seen each other since. Now, she’s part of his life again, as a friend. George’s father seems genuinely happy to see her and treats her with affection and respect. But George’s mother is acting out, making her feel uncomfortable. One of the other characters explains that when a child’s marriage breaks up, it can be hard on the parents. Everybody pays attention to the kids of divorced couples, but they all just assume that the parents will just deal (as it were) with their son’s or daughter’s divorce. Continue reading “Parents of Divorced Couples”
Posted in Ardor Point, Books, Love and Relationships, Writing | Tagged divorce, marriage, relationships
By J. Timothy King on November 23, 2009
She’s a headstrong, driven, single-minded businesswoman, a successful independent professional at only 29 years old. But she still feels empty. He’s a fun-loving real-estate agent who made a mint in the boom market, now fast running out of money. And their friends set them up on a blind date, unaware that many years ago, they were once married to each other. Continue reading “She’s a headstrong businesswoman…”
Posted in Ardor Point, Books, Writing | Tagged NaNoWriMo
By J. Timothy King on November 20, 2009
I was writing pinkies-up for a few days, because I need to re-take Knife Safety 101.
I’ve been slogging my way through NaNoWriMo. I’ll probably call this novel From the Ashes of Courage (or some variation thereof), because I think it reflects the theme and mood of the story: risking all in the face of defeat; and less Love Boat, more As Good As It Gets.
At this point, when it comes to NaNoWriMo, I’m about 15,000 words behind where I ought to be, and I don’t appear to be catching up. This, after I bragged that I wouldn’t have any trouble keeping up. (That’ll learn me to keep my big mouth shut!)
I could blame my accident last Saturday. Continue reading “7 Fun Links from My Feed Reader”
Posted in Fun, Writing | Tagged bloggers, blogs, links, websites |
By J. Timothy King on November 13, 2009
The Little One was commissioned by one of her friends to draw pictures for a book about how to grow flowers. My first question was, of course, “How can you draw pictures for a book that hasn’t been written yet?”
That was the Little One’s question, too. But she drew the pictures, and explained each one to me. And I thought that made a wonderful little sequence all by itself.
So I scanned the pictures and am posting them here, with the Little One’s words.
Enjoy!
-TimK Continue reading “How to Grow Flowers”
Posted in Books, Stories | Tagged Abbie King, artwork, children |
