A different path

Three books by three different authors. All women’s fiction.


Ann Tatlock, Patti Lacy, and C.S. Lakin.

A new direction.

I chose these books as part of my revision plan. I hope to read them within the next two week period to boost my awareness of what makes a great book.

Yes, I’m going to study them for structure and plot and conflict and even how many times they use a familiar phrase. But mostly I hope I get sucked so deeply into them that I forget to analyze each page.

That’s my first desire.

My second desire is to apply what I learn to my own work.

I’m not talking voice here or copying any of their techniques. I’m only talking about finding that overall thing that makes a story one you can’t put down.

I hope each of these books will do that for me.

So this is only one of many steps I’m taking in this revision process. It might help—it might not. But it’s a shot.

What new direction have you taken recently?

Share with me

Hello revisions.

I’m in that awkward stage where I’m trying to read my MS as though I didn’t write it. Just to see what a reader might feel.

I got to about chapter 11 and said, “Whoa, what on earth were you doing here?” Not my best work for sure.

So I drew a big sad face and marked the spot. For later. When I go back through and fix and fix until I can actually say I’m proud of it.

It’s a process—coming up with a piece of work that will hold up to the test when I send it to my critique partners, beta readers and maybe an editor BEFORE I query it.

It’s a process that can’t be rushed.

I’m trying to think of everything I’ve learned and put it all together even if it takes forever.

I know—sounds like a song. But in a way, my book should sing when it’s done.

It should sing like a Hallelujah choir.

So that’s where I’m at in this fifth novel process.

Where are you with your writing today?