Writing project – Page 3 – Marie Alice Writes & Reads

Don’t Fall Asleep Just Yet

One more word, mama writer.

Don’t fall asleep just yet. Almost there. Almost through.

One more word, mama writer. Because this revision has to end at some point, even if the point seems so far ahead still.

Revising 40 K in 72 hours

Enough is e-nough, I said to myself on this fine, polar morning. This revision has to end. I need to be done with the YA paranormal.

Once and for a couple of months, time for the beta-readers to come back to me.

I was half-way through the revision. 40k words revised. 45k words to go.

This revision has been the longest one. Many cores changes, some chapters re-writen, erased, re-writen again.

So far I can say this story is close to my most accomplished one. Characters, beats, action. It’s unique.

But OH DEAR ME, I NEED TO BE DONE WITH IT !!!

Therefore, I’m going to push it. In the next 72 hours, I will devoted every hour left after taking care of my family, every hour of sleep time I can spare to finish that revision.

For the love of my own sanity and my other writing projects, I need to move on to another world for more than an hour here and there.

The YA paranormal haunts me (how ironic) even when I try to work on something else.

The Dang Light at the End of the Dang Tunnel

Now an expression I can’t ear without having a little throw-up taste rising in my mouth, seeing the light at the end of the tunnel is still how I feel with the YA paranormal.

I see the end. It’s clear. Clean cut. No more re-writes required. Just some tightening up, some rising the love tension here and there, a pinch of « oh please Main character don’t do that, don’t don’t don’t ARRRGGGGGHHH, no she did, I need to read the next chapter NOW » there.

And I’m gonna be done.

Then without further ado, dear fellow writers, thank you for reading and stay safe.

May all the words flow your way!

Writing Productivity : What Does It Takes To Be As Productive As Agatha Christie

How to be a productive writer is a question I ask myself nearly everyday. I read about it (when I should write), I listen to AuthorTuber about it (when I should be writing) and read craft books about it (when I should be writing). In this blog post, I attempt to find out what it takes to be a productive writer like Agatha Christie, one my favourite writer of all time, was.

I’ve always, always, always dreamed of being able to be as productive a writer as Agatha Christie was.

Note that I didn’t write « as brilliant a writer » nor « as successful a writer ».

First, being a successful writer is highly out of my (our) control. When I worked at a publishing house, I quickly learned that the success of a book was impossible to predict, no matter the time-energy-money one would invest in it.

Don’t get me wrong, it certainly helps a great deal. But it does not guarantee success.

Second, being a brilliant writer is also highly out of my control. I can only do my best to better my writing craft. I can only keep writing and never give up my dream/goal: earning a living publishing novels.

That being saiiiiid… What does it take to write like Agatha Christie !!!

Continuer la lecture

Creative Writing February!

New month, new creative writing challenge?

Why the heck not ! I have quite literally no where to go. No day-job, no grocery shopping, no nothin’.

Here’s my challenge for February: write one full hour everyday and have fun while doing so.

Now, how to do that without being completely burned out ? Let’s see !

Roaming the Many Roads of Creative Writing Land

I really, really don’t want this challenge to become a NaNoWriMo kinda of thing. The challenge is to write consistently, not to produce as many words as one writer can muster in a short period of time.

(I understand it can help to stay motivated, but the torture and stress and competitive side of it all, oh so not for me!)

It’s a no stress just fun challenge.

On the other end, I do want this creative writing challenge to be productive and help me move forward with my 2021 writing project goals.

Which road should I choose then?

February Work in Progress

I picked three very different writing projects to work with in February.

The YA paranormal second draft – only 40 000 words to go, hooray!
The rom-com Xmas novel first draft – very existed by this one, houlàlà, writing for adults.
A fantasy short story

I purposely picked three very different genre, and two different reader target, which might sounds like a bad idea since the most common writing tips both from agents and author marketing is: pick a genre, know your readers and focus on that!

I’ve been writing for a young audience since I first starting writing (I was 9 years old, and it was a fantasy story about a farm boy falling for a princess who’s then made prisoner or something like that, hee hee).

I read a variety of genre, but I would always go back to the stories I loved as a kid and a teenager.

A lot of those stories where stories for adults, but let’s not digress and get into a whole discussion on target readers, age and the publishers hegemony, or we’ll never get to write our novels.

Dear fellow writers, thanks for reading ! May all the good words be with you !