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On Writing (Strong) Female Characters
Men know jack about women. Women don’t really get me either. But, men and women authors have to write characters of the opposite sex. They do it all the time. Some even write novels/stories with women narrators. Hey, if they can pull it off all the power to them. Nick Hornby did so quite effectively in…
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Early Beta-Reader Comments
I’ve mentioned before that the first draft of my novel is currently being beta-read by my first beta-reader. It’s nerve-racking, having someone reading it for the first time in seven years, but, this is an important part of the process, and I’ve asked my beta-reader to be completely honest in assessing the story to help…
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Writing for Men… and Women.
Today I got curious about the prevalance of the term “lad-lit” and decided to do a Google News search on the term and see what came up. Not much. Articles were sparse… but… I did find a three-year-old Newsweek article that caught my eye about… you guessed it, Nick Hornby. Titled, “King of Lad Lit…
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We Need More American Lad-Lit
According to Wikipedia, “Nick Hornby is considered to be the originator of” the lad-lit genre. As a result, much of what is often considered lad-lit is written by other British authors. The term itself is British. When I consider the lad-lit that I’ve read, this holds true. Nick Hornby, Jonathan Tropper, Nick Spalding, Matthew Norman,…
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Kill Barnes & Noble?
I must admit that I am conflicted about reports of the impending inevitable death of Barnes & Noble and whether it can be saved… or should be. As an aspiring novelist, I can think of few things that would be more satisfying than seeing my novel on a bookshelf at Barnes & Noble. Okay, seeing someone…
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First Drafts, Beta Readers, and Novel Number Two
Well, it’s been over a week since I finished the first draft of my first novel. Let’s give you an update on what has happened since then. First, I celebrated. I didn’t go overboard: I just had a double of my favorite scotch and relished in the fact that after seven years I’d finally completed…
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Seven Years Later… My First Draft is Finished.
Earlier this year I resolved to finish my oft-neglected novel, Not Famous. Today, after seven long years,I finally finished the first draft. In mid-March I estimated that I’d finish by the end of April… and I was right on target, finishing the first draft on the very last day of the month. For those who are wondering,…
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Writing. Productively… For a Change
Yes. Believe it or not… after five… no wait, six years of working on and off (mostly off) on this novel, I’ve finally been making solid progress, dedicating a couple hours most days to reading through it, start to finish, and revising and filling in parts left for another day. Yes, I am going through…
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So, Yeah… Back Here…
I’ve neglected this blog, I know that. But, I didn’t realize how badly I’d neglected it when I realized that my host, ThirdScribe, was apparently no longer working, so I’m back on WordPress.com… Not sure what happened to ThirdScribe, but I’m not gonna fret about it… Any blog posts I made while at ThirdScribe are…
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