#VoyageOut2023 Week 1 begins Sept. 1, 2023! #VirginiaWoolf #Firstnovel

Disappointed with your 1st draft? Console yourself with this, from Thomas Edison:

"I was always afraid of things that worked the first time."

#AmWriting #WIP
#FirstNovel
#CreativeAdvice
#WritingAdvice
#writer #writers #writing
@amwriting
@writers
@writingcommunity
#writingCommunity
#forWriters #forReaders
#bookstodon
@bookstodon

#AmWriting #writing #writersBlock
#writingCommunity
#forwriters
#writersofmastodon
#WIP
#FirstNovel

One of my greatest pleasures is the moment when a client has a breakthrough during a coaching call. It makes my job - working with new writers - all the more rewarding!

#bookcoach #bookcoaching #writingcoach #authoraccelerator #newwriter #firstnovel #newwriters

#WritingCommunity

After some debate with myself, I have written a piece about the fact I am frozen in my tracks at the sixth revision of my #WIP , #HiramFalls .
I need your help. #FeedbackFriday

Here it is: https://medium.com/fuck-niches/what-its-like-to-wait-592dd8998fb2?sk=585fd930d651040de877f89d6807c29e

That's a friend link --- you should be able to read it having to jump through hoops.

I'd love to hear your thoughts, suggestions, advice as to how I can get #unfrozen.

#writers #amwriting #firstnovel #fiction

I forgot the intro part of today's #WritingWonders ... I'm in my Third Life.

1. Journalist, mostly newspapers (remember them?) for 33 years. Worked with fantastic people, won lots of awards, put some crooks in jail.
2. Started & ran a nonprofit that helped kids write better (gave them audience all over the state) and teachers teach writing better (gave them private websites and training to write and comment with their kids).
3. Now three years into #firstnovel, #HiramFalls. Getting there.

@kevryanperson Been delayed by illness, but have been keeping to a practice of devoting early part of each day taking notes on a specific character, reading some of their chapters and letting my brain do a walk-about with them. Full bore next week.

#wip #FirstNovel #writingcommunity #revision

Day 0: January #WritingWonders

After such a marvelous response to last month's entries, I'll be repeating this experiment again, referring to my novel #WIP "The Oathbreaker King: a Shroompunk Tale" and my main character Giuvano.

See December's entries here:

https://dice.camp/@vkfarfalle/109484985677944035

0/31

#fantasy #writing #FirstNovel #shroompunk

Readers: What are overused tropes, narrative styles, etc. that you DON’T want to see in a new book? I have a couple of stories rolling around in my head and I want to tell them the way they need to be told, but I want to avoid beating a dead horse if I can.

#reading #books #novels #writer #writing #FirstNovel

@beffie @bookstodon

Had it on my #bucketlist for a while.
A conversation with an #Indian friend got me to it finally. Beautifully written, a great perspective on #castes, quite incredible for a #firstnovel. #BookerPrize well deserved!

The boy is screaming because he is going far faster than he ever dreamed his new sled would go atop the thick layer of ice that had #frozen from the gentle rain the night before. The boy tries desperately to steer the sled, keeps wiggling the handle left and right but the sled is hell bent on going straight in the fastest possible line towards the end of the field that ends on a rock ledge with a scruff of young maples behind.

#MastoPrompt #HiramFalls #amwriting #firstnovel #WritingCommunity

@KatLynReid So sorry; 2 ideas to try to console you.

1: When I embarked on my #firstnovel I came down one morning, read the 25,000 words I'd written and realized it sucked. So I deleted it. And the backup. I spent the summer having fun. In the fall, I resumed and am now on my sixth and final draft.

2. Word is infuriating. I can't tell you how many times I had, without realizing it, two versions of the same file up and 'saved' them in the wrong order and lost everything. So I bought Scrivener.

@MJQWrites I am, as they say, no longer gainfully employed. By choice. So I have the luxury of having more time to focus and plan and embrace the largest project of my life, my #firstnovel.

When I was working, I tried to follow the practice of Toni Morrison who, as a single mom and full-time book editor, stole time in the early morning and late night to write but used moments in her day to think about a phrase, a scene, a character. She was always thinking about what she was writing.

In her diary, Carrie writes:

"We sat in silence, E. and I, huddled in the carriage under the coverings, watching the day disappear.

In the clear, #crisp dusk, we watched a hawk circle above us, and the sky turned all deep blue with just an orange slit beneath the clouds in the west, all snug in our hearts under the wool and the hides. We didn’t even feel the cold as we made our way back home everything so bright, white, blue.

#MastoPrompt #HiramFalls #amwriting #firstnovel #writingcommunity

@ProfeJMarie Yes, I can identify with this. And the thing is, which is which?

Because I've been waiting to re-enter my #firstnovel #HiramFalls until I had a chance to read the markups of and talk with my editor, I've had lots of time (too much?) to think over what is not working and why and what to do about it. Which, in essence, is the hardest thing about writing.

Millard opened the telegram:

"Mother not well. Come home. Now. Best, Father."

"Best?" Millard thought. "Fucking, BEST?"

He waited an hour. Then he phoned his father at work. The conversation was brief.

"Father wishes me back,” he told Sylvia. “He's facing a lot of #pressure at the bank. He needs me."

Millard’s father had never said he needed Millard at the bank. Millard’s father would never say he needed Millard for anything.

Sylvia knew that.

#HiramFalls #MastoPrompt #firstnovel

@samgalerosen Welcome to the Fediverse from a retired Vermont journalist, now #amwriting my #FirstNovel #HiramFalls

@FreshLookEdit @edibuddies

Music. Absolutely.
I #amwriting my #firstnovel & found the biggest issue was getting back into the frame of mind of the day before. I finally settled on music: Julia Kent (https://juliakent.com) a NYC cellist; she became my musical muse. Only listened when I wrote. It worked. I wrote her. We've talked about connection between music & writing. Powerful.

BUT, for a two-week blast to get recent draft ready for editor, I did NOT listen. Didn't need to.

@mmahaffie Welcome to you, fellow Vermonter. I live down the road a piece in Hinesburg.

I #amwriting my #firstnovel #HiramFalls An excerpt will be put on stage by Vermont Stage Co. Dec. 14-18 at The Black Box theater.

Be well. Look forward to connecting with you here.

@jlizhenry it is daunting to be now 3 years into this #firstnovel but feeling, finally, that it's there & I can attain the quality I want.

I've been incredibly lucky to have people helping who've not been afraid to tell me exactly what they think. Now, specific feedback from a new (and tough) editor who a) loves it & b) wants to help me get a literary house to publish it.

#HiramFalls will someday soon be seen! But this final step is going to be tough.

#amwriting #WritingCommunity #writer