Wendy Parciak
@wendyparciak
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Writer & career multitasker, w/obsession for MG & lit fic, music (Juilliard/cello), ecology (PhD), & dogs (agility trainer), . Also on Bluesky!
Missoula, MT
Joined July 2015
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Pinned Tweet
Writing + Dogs = HAPPY TALES
(corny, but true)
Does anyone else agree?
#WritingCommnunity
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I just realized that I define "success" as getting one's book published. But maybe success is simply writing the book in the first place. I might need to re-think this.
As a writer, what does success mean to you?
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This sounds dreadfully selfish, but I write for myself more than anyone else.
#WritingCommunity
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Do you use a thesaurus? Are you embarrassed to admit it?
I visit my thesaurus with delight, willingness, even zeal. There's no better way to familiarize myself with all the wonderful words at my disposal!
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My favorite piece of writing advice:
"Write the book you want to read, the one you cannot find."
-Carol Shields
What's yours?
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I'm curious what proportion of writers are unabashed introverts, like me. I recharge alone at my desk or in the woods with my dog, not in a roomful of people.
Note: an introvert can still be a good communicator!
#WritingCommunity
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Would you keep writing even if you never were able to find an agent or get published?
My answer is an emphatic YES. It's how I channel my innermost thoughts to a place where I can see them, feel them, process them, and change them.
#WritingCommunity
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Sounds selfish, but I write for myself above all else. How about you?
#WritingCommunity
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Do you refer to yourself as an author or a writer?
I'm torn. While "author" points to the book I've had published, "writer" indicates a way of life, a never-ending obsession with the flow of words. And isn't that 2nd thing the most wonderful of all?
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Do you ever create a secondary character so strong that they demand to become the MC? Or better yet, have their own book?
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You know you're a writer when...
You remove two words from a sentence, and it works so much better that you feel inordinately joyful for the rest of the day.
#WritingCommunity
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Agents often say they want unique voices, worlds, and plots ... but how much of a risk do they really want to take?
I suspect this is the reason for most of my rejections, yet I can't stop writing this way!
#WritingCommunity
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#amwriting
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They say to "write what you know," but I love writing at least a little bit outside of my own skill set. It's a chance to learn about things I'd never actually do in real life.
#WritingCommunity
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Do you know how your story's going to end when you start writing it?
I have a general idea, but as I get close, my characters almost always surprise me with an even better solution.
#WritingCommunity
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My tweet yesterday led to someone accusing me of simply trying to promote engagement. And I realized ... it's true. ENGAGEMENT AMONG WRITERS is the
#1
reason I'm here. It helps me feel part of a community & opens my mind to diverse opinions.
#WritingCommunity
#writing
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Do you write a slow, polished first draft or a fast flawed one?
Though I'm in the former camp, I still spend a long, happy time revising...
#WritingCommunity
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Do you prefer digital or actual books?
I'll always love the real thing: the ruffling of pages, jumping around at will, re-visiting maps & important passages. Nothing beats the smell of a new book or the tattered, loved feel of an old one.
#WritingCommunity
#amreading
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Two rejections yesterday means: Yay! I get to write two more queries today.
(if we fake joy hard enough, it turns into real joy, right?)
#amquerying
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Do you write regularly – or only when the muse calls? If I waited for my muse, I don’t believe my writing would ever happen. She creeps in slowly, shyly, after I’ve gotten warmed up.
#WritingCommunity
#writing
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Do you read your MS aloud to yourself after revisions?
I can't think of a better way to spot awkward dialogue, under-developed transitions, and faltering plot lines.
Oh, and it gives me a ton of respect for audiobook actors!
#WritingCommunity
#writing
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It's impossible for me to impart just how much I love revision. There's something so satisfying in the moving, the adding, the cutting, the replacing of words, with one eye on the microscopic and the other on the whole.
Who's with me?
#WritingCommunity
#amediting
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I'm making the conscious choice to consider writing my career rather than a hobby, no matter whether I ever publish traditionally. Care to join me?
#WritingCommunity
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Do you let your characters eat? Do they think about food, hunger for it, choke down something vile, delight in mouth-watering delectables?
Awakened by my growling stomach this morning, I realized I need to do more with it in my current WIP...
#WritingCommunity
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Do your sidekick characters ever threaten to take over the story? Mine do ALL THE TIME. It's a constant struggle to keep my MC the most interesting one.
#WritingCommunity
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I recently heard that steampunk is considered obsolete. Unfortunately, the world in my new WIP is taking on a distinct steampunk flavor.
Q: Should I change it now before getting too far? Or keep going, even if no one wants to publish it?
#WritingCommunity
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Do you write to allow readers to escape, or to impart something that's important to you?
I aim for both.
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Internal monologue is an essential part of my characters & me. I was shocked to learn that only 30-50% of people frequently experience it.
Do internal words flit through your head, narrating your own journey, or do your thoughts arrive another way?
#WritingCommunity
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Asking as a writer: When do you put a book down because it's not engaging you? First page? First chapter? Halfway?
There's a lot of pressure to get that first paragraph & first page perfect, but I'll read a quarter of the way before giving up.
#WritingCommunity
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Pick your poison: do you prefer a quick emailed rejection or no response?
I'll take the verbal "no thanks" every time. Like a decisive break-up, it helps one to move on and seek that one-and-only elsewhere.
#amquerying
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What non-writing experience has shaped your writing the most?
Ecology for me: locating songbird territories in the woods, studying diving birds in the water, surveying birds from the air, learning how these small creatures interact with the world.
#WritingCommunity
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What's your biggest goal as a writer?
Mine is simple: to be a storyteller -- of tales people can't put down & can't forget, even if they never intended to start reading them in the first place.
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Querying Game Plan: Send out five queries for a given MS. Wait. Every time a rejection rolls in, send out another query to replace it.
Methodical. Impersonal. The only way for me to get it done.
And you?
#amquerying
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We writers are lucky creatures indeed. Instead of living one life, we get to live as many as we have time to put on the page.
I'm on about my tenth life now. How about you?
#WritingCommunity
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PANTSING vs PLOTTING:
Have you tried both methods?
Do you switch between them depending on what you're writing?
I started out a pantser, but then discovered the joys of plotting -- and never looked back.
#WritingCommunity
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When you get a major critique back, how do you react?
I give myself a day of sulking & denial, but then the internal brainstorming begins. I'm digging into revisions before the week is out!
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Why do you write?
I write for my characters, who are perpetually puzzled by the world and their place in it. I love helping them figure out how to change it -- and change themselves.
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Major existential crisis in the wee hours last night. Why do I write? Someone please tell me that "because I love it" is enough!
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Do you enjoy the self-promotion that seems so necessary for published writers these days?
I'd love to hear the good things about it, because as an introvert, I dread it!
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Writing is HARD WORK. For me, it's like swimming in a cold lake, requiring a big internal shove to force my muscles to take the plunge.
But once I'm in, I can swim, float, go with the flow. It's delightful.
#WritingCommunity
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FIRST DRAFT: where we get to tell ourselves a story. No readers, no reviewers, no rules. Just pure creative pleasure.
Easy, right? (haha)
#WritingCommunity
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Do you secretly aspire to become a famous writer? Or maybe not secretly. Though that sort of goal is a longshot, I don't think it's anything to be ashamed of.
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COMPS: I am in awe of writers who can find good, solidly selling (but not best-selling!) books published in the last 3-5 years.
Please let me know your secret, if you have one!
#WritingCommunity
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When kids tell you they want to be a writer, what do you say to them?
I am delighted -- but can't help thinking they'd either better be independently wealthy or acquire the skills for a more lucrative career on the side...
#WritingCommunity
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I just started--and discarded--two books after Ch 1. One was nearly all telling with too many adjectives, the other was mostly plot with zero character development.
What makes you put a book down for good?
#WritingCommunity
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Do your characters ever pop out fully formed, voice and all?
I adore when that happens - it's like they've been hiding in my subconscious all these years, yet I never would have met them had I not started writing the story.
#WritingCommunity
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You know you're a writer when...
Me: when a well-crafter sentence fills you with joy for the rest of the day.
#WritingCommunity
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Do you read exclusively in the genre that you write?
Probably less than half of my reading is in my genre. The rest contains so many genres I'd run out of room to list them all.
#WritingCommunity
#writers
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Who else awakened at the crack of dawn this morning, thinking about Life, the Universe, and their WIP?
#WritingCommunity
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Last night I had a writerly meltdown in which I despaired of ever getting my stuff in front of readers. Sometimes the "write for myself" attitude starts to feel mighty lonely...
#WritingCommunity
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I can never get over how much we can fall in love with a made-up world & characters.
#WritingCommunity
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My initial plan for my story and what ends up on the page are often two very different things.
I blame my characters!
#WritingCommunity
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You ever have a character who takes over your story to the point that you don't know who's writing it anymore?
Kinda scary, but I'm not complaining...
#WritingCommunity
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Is there a piece of writing advice you've heard so much that its message has become ingrained in your soul?
Mine is SHOW, DON'T TELL.
#WritingCommunity
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Unreliable Narrators: There's been a lot of hype about this over the years. But aren't most narrators unreliable in a sense - their thoughts & actions dictated by their own personal biases and misbeliefs about the world?
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Does your story express joy? Even if it's only fleeting within an otherwise dark, sad, or scary world, I love that feeling of pure happiness and hope.
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Do you write about places you've actually visited?
My fantasy settings stem from real locations that fascinate me, though I've yet to experience most of them in the flesh.
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I want to write the kind of story that makes my readers late for school and late for dinner, so immersed in this new world, these characters, and their predicaments that they forget all about their own.
#WritingCommunity
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Chapter endings – do you always need a hook? Sometimes this starts to feel a bit formulaic to me.
Also, I find it refreshing to read a chapter that moves from difficulties or despair to hope every now and then.
#WritingCommunity
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Do you end each chapter with a hook? Not necessarily an edge-of-the-seat statement, but some bit of dialogue, action, or insight that causes the reader to wonder what's next?
#WritingCommunity
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At this early stage in my WIP, I'm once again tempted to try multiple POV's, but an editor scared me off of them long ago.
If you've used them, were you able to keep track of your character arcs and knit a coherent story together?
#WritingCommunity
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Can you sum up your attitude toward publishing in a word?
Mine is FIERCE. I will make it happen, somehow, someday.
#WritingCommunity
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Use of prologues is so controversial. Do you use them?
I never have, though I often start Ch1 with a poem that sets the tone.
#WritingCommunity
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Queryers, take heart! I got a full request yesterday ... and my query had a TYPO in it (left out the "been" in "have been"). So at least some agents are willing to overlook such things.
#amquerying
#WritingCommunity
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Writing a novel is like putting together a puzzle. You've got the pieces + a picture of how it should look in the end -- all you've gotta do is put it together.
But instead of 1,000 pieces, it's 50,000. And let's hope the dog didn't eat any of them.
#WritingCommunity
#writing
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Do you put your pets in your stories?
Almost all of mine include a dog or sometimes a cat, with at least one mannerism that I stole from my own.
#WritingCommunity
#writing
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Does the title for your WIP come to you first, last, or somewhere in between?
Mine almost always comes first -- as if my subconscious already knows the essence of the story I want to write.
#WritingCommunity
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One Good Thing About Being a Writer:
Any pain, hurt, or general unpleasantness that you may experience serves as terrific fodder for a story.
#WritingCommunity
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Writing is hard work. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
But the corollary to that is: We can be darned proud of what we do.
#WritingCommunity
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A writer's perpetual question: When am I really done with my manuscript? Is it perfect enough yet?
#WritingCommunity
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Do you have a furry writing partner?
I rely on mine. Absolute best way to find inspiration & comfort, and of course an excuse for frequent breaks.
#WritingCommunity
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In time, querying becomes a rather peaceful, Zen-like activity, each submission another leaf drifting down the river, destination unknown...
#WritingCommunity
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Do you like to talk about your story? Or would you just rather write it, and when it's done, write another.
I fall into the latter camp, with one exception -- discussing my stuff with critique partners or editors.
#WritingCommunity
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What do you do when you hit a wall in writing your story?
I go for a walk. Whether it's in a giant corky red pine, an expanse of bright sky, or a stranger I pass on the trail, a door invariably opens somewhere and lets me through.
#WritingCommunity
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I just caught the tiniest seed of a story in the palm of my hand.
Now I must close my fingers ever so gently around it, nurture it to life, and let it spread its roots in whatever direction they want to go.
#WritingCommunity
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Do people with more money have a greater chance of being published? I hope not, but I fear so.
#WritingCommunity
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Do you ever write from your antagonist's POV?
I don't - but I'm experimenting with the POV of a false antagonist, whom the MC eventually realizes is on his side.
#WritingCommunity
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What steps do you take to improve your writing craft?
(I'd love to know what I'm missing!)
Mine include:
1. Close reading
2. Reading of craft books
3. Workshops, webinars, podcasts, and conferences
#WritingCommunity
#writing
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Don't you love it when a solution comes to you that'll tie together a bunch of dangling threads in your manuscript?
I had that sort of epiphany last night & can't wait to tie a big pretty bow in my revision today...
#WritingCommunity
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Just curious how many writers are addicted to word games. I'm thinking there's got to be a correlation. (Scrabble for me)
#WritingCommunity
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CHAPTER LENGTHS: do you try to keep them uniform? Do you strive for a particular length for your genre?
Most of my MG chapters are around 3000 words, but occasionally are as low as 2000 or as high as 3500.
#WritingCommunity
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What's the first thing you do when you turn on your computer? Kinda embarrassed to admit it -- but I check social media. Then the news. Only then do I turn to my WIP.
Maybe it's not priorities so much as getting my head into the right space...
#WritingCommunity
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Do you plan your plot twists out in advance--or do they surprise you as much as your eventual reader?
I've had both, but the latter is the most fun! (and I'm a huge plotter)
#WritingCommunity
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One of my favorite parts of revision is adding extra hints of the eventual Big Reveal. I feel like a chef, sprinkling spices, tasting, and sprinkling some more.
Do you need to add clues to your story after the first draft is done?
#WritingCommunity
#writing
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Chapter Titles: do you use them?
I love 'em myself. They're a chance to get in a little extra creativity! (of course, they're particularly well-suited to the MG genre)
#WritingCommunity
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No matter how small, a writing accomplishment is worth some pride. I've made some tough changes to my first chapter over the past few days, and it feels good!
How about you?
#WritingCommunity
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CLUES: Do you sprinkle them throughout your story?
There's nothing more satisfying than being surprised by a Big Reveal at the end, and then realizing you kind of knew all along.
I spend a lot of my revision time working on this.
#WritingCommunity
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Do story ideas ever appear while you’re chatting with someone about something totally unrelated?
When that happens to me, my brain splits apart: half trying to be civil, the other half trying not forget my idea before I can make my escape.
#WritingCommunity
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How many of you writers are also poets?
Though I don't write poems for publication, I often include snippets of them in my stories. Can't imagine one without the other.
#WritingCommunity
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There's something very satisfying about being able to provide another writer with a positive yet helpful critique of their work. It gives me almost as much joy as working on my own stuff.
Do you exchange critiques with others?
#WritingCommunity
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Are your antagonists:
(1) All bad
(2) Somewhat empathetic
(3) Truly conflicted between good & bad choices?
I try to fully flesh antagonists out somewhere between
#2
& 3. But every now and then, it's fun to write an over-the-top villain.
#WritingCommunity
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Do you have a muse? One that urges you to write and can't be ignored?
If I had to pick, I'd say mine is nature. A simple walk in the fresh air, pines, and rocky views calls me to the keyboard like nothing else.
#WritingCommunity
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I'm curious how many of you suffer from chronic health issues that force you to take breaks from your writing. Nothing is so frustrating!
#WritingCommunity
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Do you listen to music while you write?
I almost always have a single piece of music that recurs in a WIP, and find myself listening to it obsessively. Love figuring out how to transcribe the feel of those notes into words!
#WritingCommunity
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Do you stick to reading the genre of books you write?
I don't. I read pretty much everything - as long as it's well-written.
#WritingCommunity
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How long do you wait between completing a first draft and diving into revisions?
I know people say it's good to let it sit - but I cannot stay away!
#WritingCommunity
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Do you ever pull out very old manuscripts for possible resurrection?
Though I adore the first MG novel I ever wrote, the thought of looking at it again is terrifying. Not sure story craft was even part of my vocabulary back then!
#WritingCommunity
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The cool thing about writing is how it transports you to more interesting places. I've written some of my best lines stuck in grocery checkout lines, dentist chairs, & traffic.
#WritingCommunity
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I will be forever impressed by writers of days gone by, who managed to be productive without computers or the internet.
#WritingCommunity
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So many stories feature either a mother, a character's relationship with their mother, or the absence of a mother. Does yours?
#WritingCommunity
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