Blog Entries from Lifeline

  1. turnover

    Time ticks away with each breath. I can hear the shooting star track the trace in the high noon until it all goes quiet. [dedicated to my three cats] who have been with me for twenty years. I remember.
  2. Helpfuls

    I feel the need now to preach, and this is not another rant - rather the reverse. I need to say 'Thank you!' in capital letters and with a whole lot of exclamation marks. There are so many marvellous people here, and out there, that are helping. In fact, when I finish it will be due to those people that my WIP will be what it will be. There is no question that I could write without this input, but my goal would suffer. I'd never be able to make it, if not for you guys. And I will make it,...
  3. Writing and re-writing

    So, I watched a brief interview on youtube: and it gave me some things to think about. This following is written for me, only. If you feel it works for you, fine, but I don't want to start a heated discussion on the different approaches to rewriting/drafting. There you go: Something which has bothered me a long time but which I have ignored was the fact, that pretty much everyone talked about getting the first draft out as soon as may be. They talk about just sitting down and writing....
  4. The hazards of fragments

    In the last weeks I critiqued extensively and received numerous critiques as well - which sometimes annoyed me no end because they kept harping about sentence fragments. But, as I wanted to get better, I didn't go off in a huff because people point things out they see as mistake. I took myself by the scruff of my neck and went back and cleared these fragments out where I felt they weren't really, truly needed. I did this because I said to myself 'Look stupid. If enough people are annoyed by...
  5. My personal learning curve - up till now

    Here I attempt to list in chronological order my personal 'lightbulb' moments. Note: This is my very personal journey and your own might be completely different. Also: I had the basic storyline in my brain from the get-go. I am sure that these samples are not the only things I have paid attention to, but they are the ones that spring right to mind. I don't claim to be proficient in the above, just that I try to pay attention to them. This list gets enlarged every other day when I make a new...
  6. The difference between fiction and non-fiction in military stuff

    I think this will be another rant, so bear with me. To give you a baseline, I am writing civil war, and, in order to research, I started some time back reading up. First just historic accounts, but I very quickly got down to memoirs, written by the people who have been actually on the ground. And I discovered that not only the events were different from what got written in fiction, but also the characters, and not to mention the style. Heck, the style! It got so that I would start one book...
  7. Just thanks to folks

    This will be a short one. I feel the need to thank all of you who have given/give advice, details, and opinions! You know who you are, this WIP wouldn't be what it is and will become, due to your willingness to pitch in, in hours of need. Sometimes asked for, but also completely unanticipated. So.. just heartfelt thanks from me! :)
  8. Style, style,.. aehm STYLE?

    I think I need to rant again. This one has been brewing for a long time, and guess what? I haven't found a solution. So the question here is, can I be so blind to myself that, even after months and months of continuous writing I can't pinpoint this thing which is called 'style'? Looking back over my work I can definitely see that I have a specific way of bonding words together. Sentence-constructs, favourite phrases, usages of micro-tension, I express myself in a certain way. But I can't...
  9. Dea(r)ling critiquers and other hazards

    I am back to writing in my blog. This is just my way of coping with the daily challenges as they come on. But that is not what I wanted to tell. You know, writing the story of my WIP is not easy. At the start it was both personal and not, because I didn't know actually these people. But, as it is with reality, everything becomes so much worse if you get to know individuals, and don't see them as numbers. When they become your friends and lovers, the connection is strong enough to make you...
  10. Crits and Stubborness

    Edited because of valid point :)
  11. Gardening hints

    I have been commented on as the ultimate in planning but that is the opposite to what I am doing, being only a skilled gardener ;) So now I am going to share my technique, maybe it will help one or two of you down the road. We are not competition! Keep the goal in sight. Set a wc for the whole first draft. For me, 80,000. In this, the critical events, critical responses have all happened. Need not include all secondary characters in loving detail, or such things. But the novel should be...
  12. A rant about character-based writing

    Sorry about that but I need to rant right now. I have discovered that I simply cannot write further than the current scene if my subconscious is not satisfied with the MC's response, emotional or otherwise. I am stuck, each time something does not add up and need at least a day to find out why I am stuck. One would think that I would learn.. That also means that the storyline is continually shifting. I cannot make a plan when there is no continuity, and continuity is provided by the...
  13. Arg.. Scrivener!

    What I have learned during the last approximately 3 hours: 1) Formatting Text and Hierarchy - The Formatting Tab of the Compile dialogue is absolutely essential - The Content Tab of the Compile diagogue as well - Keep both in team, and don't tick 'As Is' in Content Tab, because then the Formatting Tab will not work anymore *snort* - Don't click Pg-break-before (Content Tab) at all - you can include that in the Separators-Tab 1a) A little bit about the Formatting Tab - Folder-symbol...
  14. edit's and different ways to go about it

    Just found very interesting information about the editing process (again at [[URL]http://marcykennedy.com/[/URL]]). Disclaimer: In my blog I don't claim eternal wisdom or perfection. You follow the advice here of your own free will! Development edit: The advice is, to write a paragraph about each scene. Detail POV's goals. Describe what happens. Include essential plot information which is revealed in this scene. How it affects the character. Total wc after. This should help in finding plot holes,...
  15. Only resources, or things which jog my brain

    Don't expect too much in this blog. This is not meant to be a traditional, rather a way to keep track of things I stumbled on in crazy research about writing, resources and quotes or good advice. If any of you out there enjoy it, so be it :) Read and Analyze - As opposed to only reading. Everyone knows that for storytellers reading is essential. And mostly one can't part these storytellers (i.e. me) from books for extended periods of time. But, here is the catch, if you want to be a good...
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