Hello, my name is Erinn and I SUCK AT DESCRIPTION.
I would say besides spelling, grammar and telling a good story, description is my weakest area of writing.
This week's Midweek Links will be about Description.
Here's what I know about it. Describe what's important, the shoe laces of the MC isn't important when he or she is running away from a bear bee hybrid. (I just scared the crap out of myself with this one)
Don't spend lots of time describing clothes... why? Because it's useless and BORING!!!! It's safe to assume the character is wearing clothes. Walk down any high school, every kid is wearing the same basic thing, a shirt and pants... maybe a girl will wear a skirt, but she's only doing that to impress one specific boy.
Books to read about description:
On Writing, by Stephen King, Section On Writing, Chapter 6.
Blogs who write about description.
My go to blog for this little segment is Mary Kole's blog Kidlit.
Every writer's guide says "Show don't tell." Sometimes it's important to tell, and Mary talks about when it's good to tell. But she also talks about "showing and telling" here.
More on showing not telling here by Blood Red Pen. Do you know what fills up a lot of books? People. Here's how to describe them.
Here's one I know I personally struggle with, describing and showing emotion.
Querytracker.net blog
Wanna describe a character, try the dramatic approach.
Top ten mistakes writers make...
Writer's Digest:
Writer's tip of the day- exposition--- too much. How to enrich your descriptions.
ok it took me an hour to find these few links, that's it, I'm googling now. So much easier---
All kinds of writing: Three parts of writing
Six quick Tips to writing description- POEWAR
How to write a character description. Ehow
You would think there would be a lot more information about this, but after an hour and 15 minutes this is all I've found.
Showing posts with label writers digest. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writers digest. Show all posts
Thursday, July 01, 2010
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Midweek Links- Revising
Write is SUPER fun, isn't it? You get to create new worlds, play with new friends, be a god a for hours a day. It's so awesome.
Revising sucks.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, revising sucks.
I opted to do this week's set of links of revising because in a one week I will start revising my novel No System At All for the 12 time. 12 drafts. Something along the way went horribly wrong. But it's just not there yet. I feel like draft 11 was rocking at an 80% and hopefully draft 12 will be at 95%- draft 12 is what I plan on sending to Kathleen Ortiz since my hubby won a charity auction of a FULL MS critique. Since I wanted to get the most out of our money, I wanted to send her the BEST draft I had. Which means= REVISIONS.
BTW I should say this, please don't send an agent a first draft or even a second draft. Seriously I've worked very hard for three years now on No System At All and it makes writers look bad when some newbie sends out a first draft. Writing means rewriting.
Reading = Easy and Fun
Writing= Work.
Now there are different elements to revisions - there's big picture stuff, like major plot holes and character problems, and not enough conflict.
Then there is editing. Editing sucks too.
This week I'll focus on BIG picture stuff, then do editing and running everything through a fine tooth comb.
Over at the Disobedient writer, there's a few good steps on how to improve a first draft.
Getting started on Revising:
It's a crappy and emotions processes, querytracker.net blog tells you how to avoid the black hole. They also have a great post on how to write the second draft.
Natalie Whipple has an awesome blog and in case you haven't checked it out, SHAME ON YOU! She has several posts about revising. Revision Reference Stages of revision and while she's also an artist, she does a great visual representation of revising her own art but I think it's a great metaphor for the writing revision process as well.
I just discovered this blog last week and it's quickly becoming one of my favorites.
The Blue Lipstick Samurai <--freaking awesome name, wrote up a few revision tool kit. There's also this great post about "how 2 write good." It's great for a giggle.
Writer's Digest has a good article on the 8 blunders of writing, double check you manuscript, did you do any of these?
Another site recently discovered and I"m really digging is Sarah Enni. What I like about this post is that it's a need MS Word trick that if you haven't been doing, you should be. It tells your reading level for your writing. That's a neat little tool to have in your toolbox.
What would a mid week link be without Mary Kole? She has a BUNCH of entries on her blog about revision. Here are a few, Tip on Revision When to cut something out of your manuscript and how to write an action sequence
Next week I'll focus on editing-- the nitty gritty and painfully boring stuff.
Over the summer Mid Week Links will include information on:
Characters
Pacing
Tension
Dialogue
And whatever else I can think of.
What do you think? What should I put up?
Revising sucks.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, revising sucks.
I opted to do this week's set of links of revising because in a one week I will start revising my novel No System At All for the 12 time. 12 drafts. Something along the way went horribly wrong. But it's just not there yet. I feel like draft 11 was rocking at an 80% and hopefully draft 12 will be at 95%- draft 12 is what I plan on sending to Kathleen Ortiz since my hubby won a charity auction of a FULL MS critique. Since I wanted to get the most out of our money, I wanted to send her the BEST draft I had. Which means= REVISIONS.
BTW I should say this, please don't send an agent a first draft or even a second draft. Seriously I've worked very hard for three years now on No System At All and it makes writers look bad when some newbie sends out a first draft. Writing means rewriting.
Reading = Easy and Fun
Writing= Work.
Now there are different elements to revisions - there's big picture stuff, like major plot holes and character problems, and not enough conflict.
Then there is editing. Editing sucks too.
This week I'll focus on BIG picture stuff, then do editing and running everything through a fine tooth comb.
Over at the Disobedient writer, there's a few good steps on how to improve a first draft.
Getting started on Revising:
It's a crappy and emotions processes, querytracker.net blog tells you how to avoid the black hole. They also have a great post on how to write the second draft.
Natalie Whipple has an awesome blog and in case you haven't checked it out, SHAME ON YOU! She has several posts about revising. Revision Reference Stages of revision and while she's also an artist, she does a great visual representation of revising her own art but I think it's a great metaphor for the writing revision process as well.
I just discovered this blog last week and it's quickly becoming one of my favorites.
The Blue Lipstick Samurai <--freaking awesome name, wrote up a few revision tool kit. There's also this great post about "how 2 write good." It's great for a giggle.
Writer's Digest has a good article on the 8 blunders of writing, double check you manuscript, did you do any of these?
Another site recently discovered and I"m really digging is Sarah Enni. What I like about this post is that it's a need MS Word trick that if you haven't been doing, you should be. It tells your reading level for your writing. That's a neat little tool to have in your toolbox.
What would a mid week link be without Mary Kole? She has a BUNCH of entries on her blog about revision. Here are a few, Tip on Revision When to cut something out of your manuscript and how to write an action sequence
Next week I'll focus on editing-- the nitty gritty and painfully boring stuff.
Over the summer Mid Week Links will include information on:
Characters
Pacing
Tension
Dialogue
And whatever else I can think of.
What do you think? What should I put up?
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