Finding Old Writing

Posted on June 2, 2016 by Danielle

I was cleaning out my car this past weekend, and when I finally managed to get around to the trunk, I found all sorts of goodies from my high school days. I found a bunch of my sheet music from band, including a few flute solos that I don’t remember ever playing. But I’m pretty sure I was trying to take advantage of having the copy machine password, so I made copies of music I wanted to learn. (Too bad I haven’t picked up my flute since I graduated high school.)

I also found a few journals with some old writing in them. One was a short story that I wrote two pages and then stopped writing, but it was really intriguing. Part of me thinks I had to have started that in college sometime, because it was pretty well written.

But it seemed to be about a girl with drug addict parents who lost custody when she was six or so. She was bounced from foster home to foster home until she aged out. Now homeless and desperate, she gets an offer to fulfill a huge $100,000 drug order, with the promise that she would get half the money if she was successful.

That’s where I stopped writing. Sigh. I’m hoping next week (this weekend is going to be insane with my 2 year college reunion) I can work on that a little bit. It’s an interesting premise in my opinion, and I’m curious to see where I can go with it. Heck maybe I’ll work on it today? Continue reading →

Eight Week Challenge with The Caffeinated Writer

Posted on May 29, 2016 by Danielle

Greetings and happy (early) Memorial Day!

I have eight weeks left to go at my job until my last day, and then we are on the road to Texas just one week later.

Before I leave Virginia, I really want to make some productive changes in my life. Take all the things I’ve committed to this year and actually accomplish some things!

This year, my new year’s resolutions involved losing weight, reading more, and writing more.

At different parts of the year, I’ve attempted to focus my attention on one of these goals, but (like always) a week later I’d lose interest.

Which brings me to my eight week challenge.

the caffeinated writer

Continue reading →

Three Kinds of Writing Books Every Writer Should Read, Part 3 (Guest Post)

Posted on April 15, 2016 by Danielle

Part 3: The Life of Writing

The life of writing isn’t like a job where you clock in and clock out. Sure, if you’re a journalist, but not if you’re writing fiction. If a day goes by and you don’t write a single word, there’s no one to dock your pay.

So now, the final book you need in your regular reading diet as a writer: something about actually living the writing life. Because, guess what? Just focusing on the writing itself isn’t enough. Unless your goal is to finish your novel and stick it in a drawer. Or if you don’t actually care about finishing. Or if you just want to dabble, if writing is just a hobby. But if you want to get your writing out into the world and reach readers, you’ll need to do more. And you’ll need a guide. In The Art of War for Writers, James Scott Bell serves up 77 bite-sized chapters on how to succeed in the life of writing, organized into three parts:

Continue reading →

Three Kinds of Writing Books Every Writer Should Read, Part 2 (Guest Post)

Posted on April 8, 2016 by Danielle

Part 2: The Art of Writing

It’s sad but true: you can craft grammatically perfect prose, turn a nice phrase, and even come up with an insightful metaphor or two—and still write forgettable fiction. How many books feature the same stock characters and predictable plots? Or worse: unbelievable characters and clunky, hole-ridden plots? So, if you’re going to write, if you’re going to pour your time, your energy, your life into a world that doesn’t even actually exist—if you’re willing to do all that—why not make your writing the best it can possibly be?

In my last post, I featured a wonderful little book on the craft of writing, The Elements of Eloquence. It drills down deep into phrases, sentences, and rhetoric. Today, we look at the second kind of book that should be a part of every writer’s reading diet: a book on the art of writing, because writing is more than craft.

That’s right: as writers, we need to do more than just study the craft, we need to catch a vision of what great writing can be. In The Art of Fiction, John Gardner gives us exactly that. Continue reading →

Writing About Your Life

Posted on April 4, 2016 by Danielle

writingaboutyour life.jpg

(I’m not writing an one, but) I’m not quite sure I understand how people can write autobiographies about their life (probably redundant, but whatever).

Like how do you know what’s important? What people care about? What “scenes” from the days you were on Earth move along some sort of narrative that you’ve felt was important enough to share with everyone?

I’m having a hard time with my Camp novel this month. I mean, I wrote the first 149 words (milestone, woo!) and now I’m having a hard time writing the next batch of them. I did some very minor planning: a very basic list of important events that should probably be covered, but then I wonder if maybe some of them aren’t really integral to the storyline. Continue reading →

Three Kinds of Writing Books Every Writer Should Read, Part 1 (Guest Post)

Posted on April 1, 2016 by Danielle

Part 1: The Craft of Writing

What’s the most important rule of writing a novel? Get your butt in the chair and write. Got that? Good. But what’s next? What will take you from hack to Hemingway? Here’s an idea: read.

Read the kinds of things you want to write, of course. Then read things that aren’t like what you want to write. Read classics. Read poetry. (I’ve heard that Ray Bradbury read poetry every day. Reading his work, I believe it.)

But if you really want to write, then make sure you read books about how to write, and how to be a writer. And then read them again. While there’s no shortage of writing advice out there on the internet, do yourself—and your readers—a favor and dig a little deeper. Make these three kinds of writing books a part of your regular reading diet:

A book about the craft of writing.
A book about the art of writing.
A book about the life of writing.

Without a doubt, there are no shortage of books that fit the bill. In this series of three articles, I’ll introduce my go-to picks for each of these three necessary books. Today, a look at one on the craft of writing. In following posts I’ll take a look at the the art of writing and life of writing.

Continue reading →

4 Days Left! Time to Go to Camp!

Posted on March 28, 2016 by Danielle

Participant 2016 - Web Banner

Are you signed up for Camp NaNoWriMo? There’s still time!

I’m super thrilled about my project this go around. I will NOT be completely winging it like I did in November (because Cover Up is a MESS), plus I’m getting in some good therapeutic writing.

Thankfully, since the day I somewhat angrily came up with this brilliant idea for a novel, things are sooo much calmer. My wine consumption has returned to normal (like I did NOT try to drink red wine out of a chocolate easter bunny like the Internet suggested – even though I had both a hollow chocolate bunny AND a bottle of red wine at home).

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We’re super focused on saving money now and trying to figure out what the next step is career-wise for me. Cue existential crisis, but I had one yesterday so we don’t need to do that again today. Continue reading →

Should You Find a Writing Partner?

Posted on March 15, 2016 by Danielle

Should You Find a Writing Partner-.jpg

Separate from a beta reader, writing partners are there to keep each other honest. Note, I’m not speaking of a co-writer for a project. More like an accountability buddy.

A writing partner should:

make sure that their partner is on track with their current writing project
offer up advice as necessary
beta read/critique work as it gets submitted back and forth
chat often: either online or in person
be a shoulder to lean on when writing is hard, or when you get another rejection

This partnership should be 100% mutual. Both people should put forth the same amount of effort into helping one another. If one person cares more than the other, only one person benefits (and the partner who doesn’t benefit will be pretty upset).

There’s some pros and cons to consider before beginning the search for a critique partner:

PROS:

With a good partner, you will get great feedback for your WIP.
They will keep you honest, making sure that you’re actually writing something and not just saying you are (nudge, me*).
They are there to support you through thick and thin, success and failure.
Your partnership could very easily turn into a FRIENDship

Continue reading →

Camp NaNoWriMo April ’16

Posted on March 7, 2016 by Danielle

YALL.

Don’t ever plan a wedding. If you get engaged, go to the courthouse and get married, and then have a backyard barbecue or something.

The stress of wedding planning has finally made the inevitable happen. We’re postponing our wedding date. I can’t plan a wedding from afar. It’s just so stressful.

And it really just crept up on everyone. We had an 18-month engagement, and we all still somehow managed to put off everything until 4 months before the big day. If you do have a wedding, pro tip: DON’T DO THAT.

Through the midst of making this decision, I decided that I needed to creatively get all of the stress out. Pushing this back by 4-5 months is such a relief, but now I need to put it all down on paper.

HENCE – MY CAMP NANOWRIMO PROJECT

I Should've Gotten Eloped (1).jpg

Here’s the description I wrote on my personal Facebook:

“My next writing project is a creative “non”fiction satire about how terribly I feel about wedding planning. It will be hilarious and sad and hilarious. No promises that I don’t drink wine while writing it too. I’ve drank so much lately.”

We’ve talked about using writing as therapy (and coffee too) and I’m finally going to use it as an outlet for all this craziness.

I don’t have a legit synopsis to share just yet, but I’m working on some planning-type things now so I’ll share that with the world once I’ve figured it out.

Gosh this is going to be a fun one to write.

Here’s a link to my camper profile. Are YOU taking part in Camp NaNoWriMo this year?