I’m preparing one of my novels for submission, and I’m writing a synopsis. I hate synopses. Like all prejudice, it’s an irrational loathing–I always feel like I’m crushing the story, stripping away the beauty and leaving just a skeleton, and I can’t help but think that if people want to know what a book isContinue reading “The hardest thing about writing”
Category Archives: NaNoWriMo
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”
It was a dark and stormy writer’s block….
A long time ago, when I was a nerd in high school, I hung out with a bunch of other nerds in high school and we played role playing games. You know the bit Mike Myers did on his 2001 appearance on Inside the Actors Studio, with one eye crossed and speaking in a lisp asContinue reading “It was a dark and stormy writer’s block….”
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.”
Bleeding regions; plus, NaNoWriMo and happy holidays!
Still working on the Texas writers list, though it’s looking more and more impossible. Where do I put an author like Katherine Anne Porter, for instance? She was born in South Texas, lived a long time in Central Texas, and one of the major writing contests that bear her name is headquartered in North Texas.Continue reading “Bleeding regions; plus, NaNoWriMo and happy holidays!”
Samuel Snoek-Brown 