Okay. Huge thanks to everyone who commented on that last post (or sent a very helpful email). So, I've been trying and retrying to come up with the flap copy for a book that is written but not published. I was using the word synopsis, but it seems to be accurate, I should've just called …
Category: writing
Synopsiphobia Smackdown
So, an agent has asked for a synopsis that reads like a book jacket. I'm not to give too much away, but to sell the story. I feel the same way about a synopsis as I did about an outline in school. But anyway. Here is my dumb idea of the day. Let me rephrase …
Chronicles of Ink and Paper
One agent suggested my novel was young adult. This surprised me because I wasn't trying to write a young adult novel. The main character is a teenager though. But I never thought I was writing for teens. Writing for teens...that's a minefield. Well, it can be. Adults are allowed to read anything without much of …
The Writer’s Map
My writing career is not going anywhere in as much as I've no books published and agents aren't even walking down my street, much less knocking down my door to invite me out. But of all the books written in the world, only a certain number can hit the shelves. Probably what I need to …
The Year of the Towel
Obviously, blogging isn't everything. I just turned 43 (The Year of the Towel come to an end without the answer to life, the universe, and everything...), and I didn't even blog about the day. I've lost my way. A long time ago I told true stories...but that well is empty. I came across this video …
The Nicest Guy!
Because of facebook, I now know that a certain individual from my hometown is having serious health problems. He and I are not facebook friends, but we've known each other since we were five. Well, he was five and I was four. Anyway. On facebook a mutual friend posted about his illness and asked people …
The Wrong Explanation
Why I Write by George Orwell...have you read it? Many other writers have taken this title and run with it. Have you? When non-writers ask, "Why do you write?" maybe they should be asked, "Why don't you?" What if all written words vanished? What if every written word in the world--in every language--drifted up into …
The Dreaded Sensible Limit
Every single thing I can think to write sounds like whining. And nobody wants to read whining any more than they want to hear whining. Still, I feel compelled to say I'm not visiting other blogs these days and I've barely written anything in the last few weeks. Adding two classes to my schedule may …
The Dreaded “A” Question
I hate the "A" question. So, I read a blog post by my friend JES regarding the "A" word--as in What is your novel About? An agent is currently looking at my first novel, and this "A" question is on my mind. My first novel is about a difficult subject...a conversation stopper subject. Now let's …
Still Thinking about Hitler
Okay, I'm not exactly thinking about Hitler. But the last post discussed the idea of killing in a time traveling sense, which meant if-this-then-this thinking. Writers do this kind of thinking all the time. If I have my character go here instead of there or say that instead of this... And if you've written the …
Marta Bacon 