I’ve written so many times now on how music affects my writing that everyone must be getting sick of it. And I’m not the only one doing this — practically every writer with a blog has commented on his or her writing playlist at some point. I think it’s because we all wish we couldContinue reading “Yet another novel playlist”
Category Archives: Hagridden
A Writer’s Notebook: revision (Civil War novel)
As some of you know (or as a lot of you know — for some reason I racked up more then 400 visitors yesterday!), I’ve had the 19th century American South on the brain lately, partly because I was so wrapped up in watching the Hatfields & McCoys miniseries on the History Channel and partlyContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: revision (Civil War novel)”
New publication (this one’s big)
I’ve been sitting on this one for a while, waiting for news of its imminent arrival, but it’s been hard because I’m really excited about this one: issue 3 of Sententia is publishing an excerpt from my Civil War novel Hagridden (which long-time readers might remember from NaNoWriMo 2009). Today I got news that the issueContinue reading “New publication (this one’s big)”
Research tip #5: Shop the catalogue
For more on researching for fiction, go to the main research page. I’ve written about this before, but just to recap: Tom Franklin hates doing research. Yet his first two novels were historical fiction, which stuck Franklin doing the very thing he hates. Still, Franklin prefers to focus on the writing, to let the fictionContinue reading “Research tip #5: Shop the catalogue”
Research tip #3: Go to the source
For more on researching for fiction, go to the main research page. A lot of great writers started out as journalists, and critics have offered a lot of reasons for that shared background. Journalists know how to work under deadline, they have an instinct for finding a story, they’ve learned how to find an angleContinue reading “Research tip #3: Go to the source”
Research tip #2: Know your limits
For more on researching for fiction, go to the main research page. Sing it with me now: “To everything there is a season . . . A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to research, andContinue reading “Research tip #2: Know your limits”
Acknowledgments: NaNoWriMo update #4
One of the reasons I decided to participate in NaNoWriMo this year was the pressure. I don’t mean just write a bunch in November. I mean sign up at the site, with a profile and picture and everything; I mean post regular updates and excepts on the site and in Facebook and here in myContinue reading “Acknowledgments: NaNoWriMo update #4”
Researching fiction (NaNoWriMo update #3)
For more on researching for fiction, go to the main research page. Here I am at the end of day 8 of NaNoWriMo. My current total word count is 25,504. I know that makes it seem I’ve spent every waking moment of the past week writing, but really, I’ve managed to work in more thanContinue reading “Researching fiction (NaNoWriMo update #3)”
Writing in the middle (NaNoWriMo update #2)
When I was doing doctoral work at UNT, my writing professor Barb Rodman once commented that I could write more story in to less space than anyone she’d seen in a long while. “I’m always surprised when I finish a story and I look at the page count to see how short it is. YourContinue reading “Writing in the middle (NaNoWriMo update #2)”
NaNoWriMo update #1: So it begins.
I’m now two days into November and so two days into my new novel for National Novel Writing Month. So far I’m off to a strange but delicious start: I’ve had a very clear vision for this novel for about four years now, so at the outset of this project I set myself up a relativelyContinue reading “NaNoWriMo update #1: So it begins.”
Samuel Snoek-Brown 