To all the writers out there… whether you write fiction or non-fiction, regardless of your genre… have you been more productive during our self-isolation?
I know I have! With outside activities pared down to a bare minimum, the page numbers in my WIP swell on a daily basis.
Chapters have been flying back and forth with my writers group via email. Critiques are returned much faster. Because I plan to publish this summer, Riverhaven Books has placed me in the queue for mid-June. A looming deadline provides incentive.
So forge ahead, writers! Follow your characters from your self-isolation into the world you’ve created for them!
While snow-birding in Florida, I’ve scheduled my Author Talk at local retirement communities. Those planned events came to a screaming halt earlier this week when the governor issued suggested restrictions to tamp down the spread of this nasty little virus.
Every fiction writer knows the frustration of plotting their story. Especially with a mystery, such as I create, the plot not only needs to proceed logically toward the climax, but the characters, dialogue, and actions within each scene need to be believable to the reader as the clues are subtly inserted into the story.
As I settle into my third year of snow-birding in Florida, I continue to work with my writing group back in Massachusetts by emailing chapters back and forth, soliciting comments and suggestions. Our system seems to work very well, and in fact, I think we’re more productive!
Whenever the members of our writers group are unavailable for a face-to-face meeting at alternating houses or libraries located between us, we have found that emailing our chapters for critique works very well.
This Wednesday afternoon, I’m returning to Upton, MA, to participate in a follow-up interview with Jan Lewis, hostess of the Upton local cable show ‘Be My Guest’. We’ll be talking about the 3rd story in my Gwen Andrews mystery series ‘Bed, Breakfast, & Blackmail’.
I’m thrilled to announce that the 3rd story in the Gwen Andrews series is finally published!
So excited to open my inbox yesterday and find an email from my editor/publisher Stephanie Blackman, owner of Riverhaven Books in Whitman, MA! As scheduled in our contract, yesterday was the due date for her to provide me with suggestions to fine-tune ‘Bed, Breakfast, & Blackmail’.
As I approached the final edit of ‘Bed, Bath, & Blackmail’, I loaded my manuscript into a website called ‘Wordcounter.com’, a most useful tool.
Debi Graham-Leard 