How Reading is Important to Writing
Originally posted on Hugs & Chocolate In On Writing Stephen King said, “if you don’t have time to read, you don’t have time to write.” Clearly, Stephen King wasn’t nursing a baby twice a night and taking a toddler to the ER for stitches. These days, our responsibilities are endless. Most days, I don’t have the luxury for both reading and writing, and for a girl who has dreams of publishing one day, the writing has to get done. Even so, I have been...
Read MoreIt Takes a Village
Originally posted on Hugs & Chocolate Back when storytelling first began, it took a community to write a tale. One person started it and told it to another, to groups over a fire. It got passed on to friends and family members, generation after generation. Each time the story met new ears, the telling got smoother. Each person augmented it with their own knowledge, improved it with their own experiences. And now, those timeless stories are the flawless fairytales and legends we know...
Read MoreWriting Character Flaws, Improving Myself
I’ve been falling back into my writing groove lately. We’re pretty settled into our house now and getting used to life as a family of four. In my new town, I immediately reached out to other writers and was so lucky to connect with two very talented women I now meet with once a week. We give each other deadlines to encourage weekly progress and then we exchange work and give feedback. That day is my favorite day of the week, not only because it’s the only time I get out of...
Read MoreBeing Emotionally Prepared for Critiques
Originally posted on Hugs & Chocolate Yesterday I went to my first meeting with my new critique group. I used the term “group” loosely since right now it’s just me and one other writer. But we have plans to expand. It’s always interesting to meet other writers for the first time since you don’t know how they write, if they’ll like your writing, if you’re all at a level that will benefit each other, etc. The scariest part, of course, is opening up...
Read MoreFind Value in Your “Mistakes”
There are two types of writers–the ones who hate their work immediately, and the ones who hate their work eventually. Either way, it’s inevitable that at one point or another, you’ll read back what you’ve written and think, “what was I thinking?” and “who let me call myself a writer?” and “thank goodness no one will ever read that.” It’s tempting to want to build a fire right there on the desk and watch all evidence of such a...
Read More1,000 Ideas in an Hour
My first order of business once I decided to focus on character building this year was to go online and shop for a character-building book. I am locationally challenged when it come to educational opportunities and right now, even an online class would be difficult to commit to. But writing craft books are great because I can pick them up whenever I have a few spare moments to get inspired. I had never heard of Characters & Viewpoint by Orson Scott Card before but the reviews on Amazon...
Read MoreEditing = Listening to the Story
I’m a few weeks into the editing process and I have to say, it’s slow going. Since this is the second draft and I’m focusing on story structure and adding a subplot, there’s a lot of writing still to do, which requires me to switch back and forth from writing and editing brain. Who knew that could be so hard? For every few chapters that need to be edited, one needs to be written and I have to ground myself in the creative part of my brain again. I’ve read a lot of...
Read MoreResearching Story Locations
While preparing for the second draft of my WIP, I finally had to face the fact that my fantasy was about to become a reality. It was time to create timelines, fact check and do research to make sure all my ideas lined up with the possibilities of real life. I had a concern about the location of my story and whether or not it’s weather was in line with the ideas I had for my plot. Since I’ve only been to my story’s location once in my life, for just a few days (and while my...
Read MoreThe Day I Decided to Quit Writing
Earlier this week, I decided to quit writing. Things in my personal life had come to a breaking point and trying to find time to write only seemed to be making it worse. A couple of my writing friends blogged about how negative people can be to one another, bringing up those old fears of publishing. And, worst of all, my story was falling apart. Have you ever gotten to that point when everything you thought you knew about your novel seemed completely wrong? I’m sure everyone who has...
Read MoreThe First Read
This weekend I did the first read of my novel. I was totally excited about it up until the day I planned to start, when the doubts finally sunk in. I had this vision in my head of the novel I wrote and I was horrified by the thought that what I was about to read wasn’t anything like it. I thought I’d written a visual and heartrending story and by the time I sat down with iPod in hand, I was sure I’d written a cheesy rendition of what could have been a story. Setting the...
Read MoreJamie Raintree
I write Women's Fiction, or what I like to call everyday fairytale love stories, appreciating the seemingly mundane moments in life that are truly magical. I am currently working on completing my first novel and until then, I post original fiction online. I live in Northern Colorado with my husband and two young daughters.
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