writing advice

Alternating First Person POV: Like It or Hate It?

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As writers, we’re always looking for the perfect POV that will really bring our books and stories to life. For my own novels, I tend to use either third person limited (this is what I think most readers are comfortable with) or first person. I’ve also dabbled with alternating third person perspectives, which I think worked well in my Mentalist fic, Red Brick Road.

Recently, I’ve read a couple of books that used something I’ve never tried before: alternating first person perspectives. The books each focused on two main characters, a male and a female. The POV shifted from one to the other every time a new chapter started. In each case, the POV character’s name was printed on the first page of the chapter, e.g.:

Chapter One: Bobby
Chapter Two: Lisa
Chapter Three: Bobby

This was done – I assume – to prevent readers from becoming confused. I’ll be honest, though – despite this extra effort to be clear, I still frequently forgot which character’s POV I was in. It happened often enough that it got annoying. I would either have to flip back to the first page of the chapter to check the name, or else wait until an obvious clue popped up. If the POV character started talking about Lisa, then I’d know I was reading Bobby’s perspective. If the character adjusted her bra strap, then I’d know it was Lisa (that, or we just learned something really interesting about Bobby).

One of the books I’m referring to here is Allegiant, the third installment of the Divergent series. In perusing the reviews on Goodreads, I found another reader who mentioned the same issue of losing track of which POV was which. The reviewer stated that Tris and Tobias’ voices were not distinctive enough to immediately tell the difference between them.

As soon as I read this, I thought, Yes! That’s exactly it!

In identifying the problem with Allegiant’s alternating perspectives, I think this reviewer also helped provide a possible solution to any writer brave enough to attempt this feat:

Make those POVs different. Make each character’s voice so friggin’ distinctive that you can randomly select any sentence from any chapter, and instantly know whose perspective it is – without having to cheat and look at the first page of the chapter.

I think this would be extremely hard to pull off successfully, but I believe it could be done. That said, anyone considering writing a novel in alternating first person POV should know the potential pitfalls. Even a brief moment of confusion or disorientation takes the reader out of the story, which is a bad thing (especially if it happens over and over again). And just putting the character’s name on the first page of the chapter simply isn’t enough, so really think about whether this POV is the best choice.

Of course, if your heart is absolutely set on alternating first person POV, then there’s nothing I can say to change your mind (we writers can be so stubborn when it comes to our babies). But if you’re still on the fence, consider some other options that might be more effective and easier to execute:

  • My writing partner is just finishing up a novel that alternates POV between the main character (first person POV) and her love interest (third person). It is easy to tell the difference between the two perspectives, and allows the reader to feel deeply bonded to the main character while still exploring the thoughts and emotions of her past (and future) boyfriend.

  • If you desperately want to do two first person POVs, consider writing the first half of the book from Character One’s perspective, and the second half from Character Two’s perspective. I think this would allow readers time to settle in to each POV without being jolted or confused by constant switching back and forth.

  • Alternating third person POV is super fun to write; it lets you explore the thoughts, experiences, and voices of multiple characters. And since you are frequently mentioning the character by name and pronoun, your readers will not have a chance to forget which perspective they are immersed in.

When in doubt, read as many books and stories as you can. Soon enough, you’ll see for yourself what works and what doesn’t, and you’ll know exactly what to do when crafting your own piece of literary art.

Happy Writing! 🙂

Get Writing in 2020!

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Why aren’t you writing? *sniffle*

Way back in December 2018, we took a look at perfectionism and how that might be crippling your writing and keeping you from reaching your goals. But that’s only one of many possible roadblocks that could be standing in the way of you finishing (or even starting!) your novel. Whatever your personal hangups are, trust me, you are not alone. There are probably thousands of other authors out there struggling with the exact same issues. I myself have been there more times than I care to recall. But no matter what the hurdle was – chaotic life circumstances, lack of time, a dry spell where the ideas just wouldn’t come – I always made it through to the other side, and you can, too!

In the spirit of making this the BEST WRITING YEAR EVER, I’ve compiled a short list of tried-and-true tips to help you find (or rediscover) your writing groove in 2020:

 

1.) Give Yourself a Gold Star (You earned it!)

I know this sounds silly and a bit juvenile, but in the past six months I’ve taken to putting a sticker on the calendar each time I get some writing done on a given day. Not only does this act give me a tangible reward each time I write, but it also helps me identify trends in my writing schedule that I would never have noticed otherwise. When I see that I’ve only written three days or less in the last week, I know I’m shoving writing to the side too often, and need to prioritize it more. On the flip side of that coin, nothing beats the feeling of looking back on a week with five or six stickers and knowing that I’m really getting the work done. (I haven’t managed a seven-sticker week yet, but it’s always something to strive for!)

 

Super-cute picture of my writing group! Photo courtesy of SK Mabry.

 

2.) Find a Writing Buddy (or Several!)

Just like with exercise routines or attempts to quit smoking, you greatly increase your chances of sticking to a writing schedule if you don’t have to write alone. Your writing partner could be someone you exchange chapters with online as a means of keeping on track, or someone you meet up with in person at Tim Hortons for a weekly writing session. Some great places to find writing partners: online CP match-ups, writing-related message boards, workshops, local writing groups. Don’t have a local writing group? Not a problem. Writers are solitary creatures by nature, but it’s easy enough to lure us out of our caves with the promise of food and being around others who share the same intense passion. Use your local library to put out a call for anyone interested in starting a writing group, and you may be surprised by how many people you connect with, and how invaluable those relationships become. To paraphrase the ghostly voice in Field of Dreams, “If you build it, they will come.”

 

What big eyes you have…to read more books with!

3.) R-E-A-D

The follow-up to the classic advice “Write every day” is, of course, “Read every day.” I know this sounds counter-productive, and it may have some of you rolling your eyes and thinking, Read every day? Are you serious? I can barely scrape enough time together to write a few measly words a week, and now you want to add more reading to my to-do list? Ugh! My short answer to your rather long-winded complaint: Yes. You should read more. Reading not only sharpens your skills as an author and editor, but it can actually make you write more because it’s sending constant sparks of inspiration down those writerly neurons. I’m never more excited to get clattering on that keyboard than when I’m reading something awesome!

 

This little bugger tries to stop me from writing – but I don’t let him!

 

4.) Be a Problem-Solver

You’re not writing. You want to be writing. So, what’s stopping you? Being able to identify your own personal writing roadblocks and find solutions to getting over those humps is key. My CP, Anna, has trouble writing at her house because there are too many distractions like laundry, cleaning, etc. Her solution: she takes her laptop to a coffee shop. I sometimes have difficulty writing because my cat, Del, is jealous of my computer (if you have a cat or dog, you know exactly what I’m talking about). He sits underneath the table where I’m trying to work and cries (loudly) for attention. My solution: I take my laptop to the living room and sit on the couch, where he can happily curl up beside me while I write. If you check your email too much instead of writing, consider working on an older machine not capable of going online (yeah, these devices still exist – my laptop, which proudly features Windows Millennium Edition, can attest to this) or even try writing in a notebook instead of on a computer. My point is, if you can figure out what’s holding you back, you can overcome it.

 

Self-forgiveness. So incredibly hard. So incredibly worth it.

 

5.) Forgive Yourself

This may be the most important tip of the bunch, and quite possibly the hardest to pull off. We all have bad writing days, weeks, even years. We all have times in our lives when there’s too much personal drama going on, or our work schedule is crazy, or we just plain can’t find the motivation to get words on the page. This is just part of being a writer. Frankly, it’s just part of life. If you beat yourself up every time you don’t write (or every time you try to write but all the words that come out seem to suck), then you are forgetting something very important: that was yesterday. Today is a new day, a fresh start, a clean slate. Forgive and forget any perceived failures. Wash away lingering doubts and let them swirl down the drain at your feet. Today will be better. Today, you will write.

Happy 2020, everybody! Get writing! (I know you can do it!)

~Gretchen

 

Perfectionism, Writing, and You

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It’s almost New Year’s Eve, but you’re not waiting for the ball to drop. You’ve already made your resolution: 2019 is the year you’re finally going to write that novel. Yay!

Of course, in all honesty, you’ve made this resolution before, haven’t you? (Come on, just admit it already.) But this time, it’s going to be different, right? No more excuses. No doubt about it. That bad boy is getting written!

Well, good for you! That’s a great goal and I wish you much success in your endeavor. However, before you go prancing into 2019 with big plans and high hopes, perhaps you should take a minute to consider why you haven’t written that future bestseller yet.

Maybe your idea for your novel is so blindingly spectacular that you’re afraid whatever you actually put down on the page will never measure up. Maybe you did start writing, but after three migraine-inducing hours of staring at a blank screen, you only managed to produce two sentences. And they both sucked. Maybe you even sweated and cried and bled your way through an entire chapter…only to chuck the whole thing out later because it wasn’t “good enough.”

If this sounds like you, then you may be a perfectionist…and it just might be crippling your writing.

First things first: if this is you, don’t despair! You can overcome the obstacles perfectionism presents and even learn to use it to your advantage.

The hardest – and most important – thing any perfectionist must do when writing the first draft is to let go. Your first draft will not be perfect. It can’t be. It shouldn’t be. Rage at the heavens, sob uncontrollably, binge-eat chocolate-covered pretzels – do whatever you have to do to help you come to terms with this painful truth.

Give yourself permission to be messy, to color outside the lines, to melt six different crayons together and make a new color. Letting go is terrifying, but it can also be incredibly freeing. Just ask the blond lady on this water bottle:

In case you can’t see it in the picture, the water inside this bottle actually IS frozen. Cute, huh? 🙂

The first draft is the time to lock perfectionism in a cage. I mean, definitely give him some food, a bowl of water, a chew toy, a blankie, etc. – you don’t want to kill him. You just want him to take a nap for a while. He’ll probably whine a bit, but don’t worry – he’ll settle down eventually.

Here are a few practical tips for combating perfectionism in the first draft:

1.) Throw it all out there.

In the photo at the top, the author is having difficulty deciding which verb to use. She’s trying to choose the “perfect” word for the way Miguel moved down the hallway, and she’s stuck on that sentence because she can’t make up her mind.

Wanna know something cool? She doesn’t have to make up her mind! The author can simply write out several options, leave them all in the sentence, and move on to the next one. Then, during a later phase (usually the first round of editing), she can choose which word feels the best…or maybe come up with something else even better!

I do this all the time when I write. Indecision is a progress-killer, so if I can’t decide, I just throw it all out there. You can do it with single words, or with whole sentences and paragraphs. It looks like this:

Miguel walked/strolled/moseyed down the hall, unconcerned about the envious stares following him.

When I go back through to edit, the perfect word will usually jump out from the pack.

2.) Just skip it.

Remember back in high school, when you were taking a math test and didn’t know the answer to problem number five? What did you do? You didn’t spend your entire hour agonizing over that pesky fifth question, leaving the other thirty-five unanswered (at least, I hope you didn’t). No, because if you did that, you’d fail the test. So, you just skipped it, moved on to number six, and then came back to five later, if you had time.

That same strategy can work for writing. If you’ve been working on the same passage for days or even weeks, and just can’t get happy with it, my best advice would be to skip that passage and move on, knowing you can come back and fill it in later (thankfully, writing a book is not a timed test).

I did this with one scene in Scars – the part where Jack tells Lily about the werewolf attack. I just could not get through that scene. Everything I wrote seemed like crap. It was holding up the whole rest of the story. Finally, I just skipped over it and came back at the end. And guess what? It was totally fine. 🙂

The skipped scene DID get written and the story got published in this lovely book. It all worked out! 🙂

Of course, in order to do this, you must have a general idea of what’s going to happen in the scene, because it impacts the rest of the story. E.g. if you’re skipping the chapter where Rosario tells Kevin she has heat vision, then don’t write him as completely shocked/flabbergasted in the next chapter when she melts the tires on the bad guys’ getaway car.

3.) Free Writing

Think about this like a mini NaNoWriMo. Set a timer for five, ten, twenty minutes – whatever fits your schedule – and just write the whole time. Don’t go back and make corrections. Don’t stare at the page thinking about the perfect phrase. Your keyboard should be clacking the entire time. Or, if you’re old school, your pen should be scratching the page continuously. If it’s totally quiet in the room, then you’re not writing.

It may not be pretty, but for extreme cases of perfectionism, this will at least get words on the page. Words that can be rearranged and molded into something beautiful later. If the blank page is your worst enemy, this exercise can help.

Once that brutal first draft is done, you can finally let perfectionism out of his cage for a little while. Let him run amok all over your book, gobbling up those nasty typos, poor word choices, pointless paragraphs that don’t move the story forward, etc. He’ll be thrilled! Just don’t leave him out too long. If he can keep you from writing your book in the first place, he can just as surely keep you from ever submitting or publishing it.

Learn to know the difference between editing something and editing it to death. (If you’re re-reading for the fiftieth time and obsessing over the tiniest phrases which sounded good ten readings ago, you’re probably in “death editing” mode.) Remember how hard it was, in the beginning, to accept that the first draft wouldn’t be flawless?

This part is even harder, because now you have to face the fact that your novel will never, no matter how many times you and your editors go over it, be 100% perfect. Because you’re not perfect. And those tiny little imperfections you’ll never completely erase? They might just be what your readers relate to and fall in love with.

So, when the book is finally the best you (and your crit partners and betas) can make it, it’s time to do that scary-wonderful thing again: let it go.

The year 2019 is coming. You’ve already made the resolution. Now, you have to decide: Do you want to be the person who had a fantastic idea for a novel in 2019? Or do you want to be the person who actually wrote one?

Best wishes in the New Year!

~Gretchen

 

 

Two New Books, One New Interview, and We All Lived Happily Ever After

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Okay, lots of exciting news to share:

 

New Books!

First off, I have just learned, like less than TWO days ago, that my cousin Elaine Bassier has a novel available on Amazon! How freakin’ cool is that? I think it just came out last month. Knight’s Duty is a YA fantasy and it’s the first book of the Unicorn Knight Trilogy. I’m only a few chapters in, and I can already tell you three things:

1.) My cousin is super talented.

2.) Female knight riding a unicorn = AWESOME

3.) I can’t wait to read what happens next!

I’ll be back with a full report after I finish, but you don’t have to wait for me (seriously, I’m a painfully slow reader – ask anyone in my writing group). Go check the book out for yourself right now:

Man, is it cool to see my last name on the cover of a novel! Okay, yeah, it’s not MY novel, but still. It’s cool.

Next bit of news: Transformed is officially available! The book of shapeshifter romance stories came out this past Friday. I already have my contributor copies, and they are all kinds of gorgeous.

If you haven’t already, please go check out the book:

 

New Interview!

In celebration of Transformed‘s release, I got to do an author interview to help promote the book! Topics include writing advice and habits, favorite authors and stories, and some fun facts about me, my new story, and the book. Please note: while my interview is family friendly, the rest of the site contains adult content, so be wary of exploring if that type of thing offends you. Happy reading, and a big thanks to Erotica For All for letting me invade their website!

http://eroticaforall.co.uk/interviews/an-interview-with-gretchen-bassier-astheheroflies/

 

A Book Signing!

I am super excited to be participating in a multi-author book signing at the Raven CafĂ© in Port Huron next month. The event will take place Wednesday, August 1st, from 7-9pm. If you’re in the area, I’d love to see you and I’m sure the other authors would too!

Books I Will DEFINITELY Have On Hand:

Transformed
Alternate Hilarities 3: Hysterical Realms
Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Cat Did What?
Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Dog Did What?
Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Cat Really Did That?
Chicken Soup for the Soul: Thanks to My Mom
Chicken Soup for the Soul: My Kind (of) America

Magazines I HOPE to Have On Hand (assuming they arrive in time!):

Trysts of Fate (August 2014)
Bloodbond (May 2017)

More info about The Raven (aka possibly the COOLEST venue EVER):

https://ravencafeph.com/

 

And finally…

A Happily Ever After Ending!

Okay, so, if you read the story description after my interview, you might be thinking that my new story, “Scars,” sounds an awful lot like an older piece called “Burn.” So, what gives?

To quote Dr. Henry Morgan, “It’s a long story!” 🙂

I originally submitted “Burn” to Transformed as a reprint. However, during the editing process, the editor and publisher asked me to change the original (read: tragic and gruesome) ending to a HEA (happily ever after) that would be better suited for their target audience.

I must admit, I was initially a bit traumatized at having to make such a drastic change to my story. As is the case with most of my short pieces, the original ending of “Burn” was the whole reason I wrote the story. It was all leading up to that moment. I wondered if the story could even work without it.

The editor, Charlie Watson, told me she’d already written a version of the ending where things work out better for the characters, but I didn’t look at that version right away. Instead, I spent a few fretful days brainstorming hard about how these two characters, who are in a terrible place at the end of “Burn,” could actually wind up living happily ever after.

After coming up with something halfway decent, I looked at Charlie’s version. It was fantastic. Just chock full of emotional gems, and truly in keeping with the characters I’d written. In addition to being a first-rate editor, she’s also a crazy talented author. My first thought was, “Well, dang, maybe we should just leave it like this!”

But the new version did leave a few plot threads hanging, so I decided to go for broke and write the version I’d come up with, incorporating as many of the elements from Charlie’s ending as I possibly could (because they were awesome). After writing 4,000 words in two days and then revising like a madwoman, I sent the new text to Charlie and spent the whole night biting my nails down to stubs, wondering if she would like it or hate it.

In the morning, I checked my email and got my own Happily Ever After moment: the alternate ending I’d slaved over was approved for the book. Yay!

Although it was a HUGE challenge at the time, I couldn’t be happier with the results. “Burn” was more horror story than romance, and while I still love the original ending, I love the new version even more. “Scars” is a story of pain and loss, but also of love and healing. Several of the people who read “Burn” enjoyed it…right up until they got to the last few sentences. Then they said, “Oh, no! That’s not how I wanted it to end!”

I promise you, “Scars” will fix that feeling. 🙂

Many thanks to my awesome editor, Charlie Watson, and everyone at Pen and Kink Publishing, for giving me the freedom and inspiration I needed to deliver my very first alternate ending – and, in the process, create a whole new, even better story!

 

Before I Go…

In celebration of alternate endings, I thought I’d share a few of my favorite fanfics that also had two different endings for audiences to enjoy:

 

Lois and Clark

“The Enemy Within” by Tank Wilson and Wendy Richards

(One happy ending vs. one very grim ending – I like the happy one!)

 

Lucifer

“There’s No Music in Hell” by Solo’s Falcon

(Both happy endings and both awesome! Hard to choose a favorite! If you’re reading it for the first time, one of the chapters – the Lucifer/Chloe love scene – is posted as a separate fic entitled “No Music in Hell: A Slice of Heaven” and it’s not to be missed!)

 

That’s it for tonight, folks! Now I’m off to read more of Knight’s Duty!

Keep Writing (and Reading)!

~Gretchen

 

 

 

News, Reviews and More!

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Hey, all – sorry I’ve been offline for so long! Lots of stuff going on right now – some good, some bad. I’ll try to catch you up! Okay, so the news first:

Publications

I read a werewolf novella by Joshua Werner and loved it so much I just had to write a review! My review of Rampant can be found in the May issue of Bloodbond, a werewolf-, shapeshifter- and vampire-themed magazine published by Alban Lake Publishing. The other content in the zine is all fiction, poetry and artwork pertaining to shapeshifters and vamps, so if you’re as crazy about creatures of the night as I am, be sure to check that out!

Up next: I have two stories coming out this August in Chicken Soup for the Soul books! Yay! The first story, “One Step at a Time,” is about my cat Sputnik’s miracle recovery from a severe health crisis. That can be found in Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Cat Really Did That?, which will be available on August 8. The second story, “Out of the Mouths of Strangers,” is a bit more humorous and includes MANY embarrassing moments from my junior high and high school years. That one will be published in Chicken Soup for the Soul: My Kind of America, which comes out on August 29.

 

Movie Reviews

In other happy news, I was fortunate enough to see THREE superhero movies in the last several months. Here’s what I thought of them:

Logan

A good movie, no doubt. High-quality and well-written. I do question the need to make this an R movie. I’m not sure that was the right way to send off the character (at least Hugh Jackman’s version of him). Wolverine has many younger fans who wouldn’t be able to see this film, and therefore wouldn’t be able to say goodbye to their favorite character. My other main issue with Logan is that it isn’t a well-balanced film. This is one of the most depressing movies I’ve seen in recent years. Virtually every character dies. And before they do, the majority of them suffer from physical and mental illness, as well as torture at the hands of their enemies. There is very little humor, and very little hope. The tone is dark and stays that way throughout, rather unrelentingly. Also, the f-word is overused. When I hear it that many times in a row, at a certain point the writer in me starts thinking, Couldn’t you have come up with a better, more creative expletive?

Despite everything, this still was a really good movie. Definitely worth seeing, but I’m not sure I’d want to own it. My suggestion: rent it when you’re in a good mood. If you’re already feeling low, this movie will only bring you down further.

Wonder Woman

To be honest, I wasn’t even sure I wanted to see this movie. Now, I can’t imagine NOT having seen it. Wonder Woman is pure magic. Unlike Logan, this movie is perfectly balanced, with just the right mix of hope, humor, action, romance and sorrow. This is the first female superhero movie to come along in…geez, I don’t even know how many years – and it delivers in a BIG way! Just seeing those powerful Amazon warriors training on their horses in the beginning of the film…I got chills. I didn’t even know how much I needed this movie until I saw it. No matter what your gender is, I promise you will leave the theatre grinning and hoping the next Wonder Woman movie is coming out sooner rather than later. Readers of this blog should be glad I don’t have a lot of time right now, otherwise you’d be getting a 5,000-word post raving about Wonder Woman.

My suggestion: See it!

Captain Underpants

I had the pleasure of seeing this movie with all three of my nephews, and I really enjoyed it. Though much of the humor is of the bathroom variety (as you can guess from the movie’s title), the core story of friendship between the two main characters is touching. As a writer (and a big superhero fan), I loved that the MCs are an author and an illustrator who created their own superhero and publish their own comic book. The fact that they get to see their creation come to life before their eyes – something any writer would give up their pinky toe to see happen – only adds to the joy of this film.

My suggestion: If you’ve got kids between 7-11 years old, take them to see it! They won’t be disappointed, and neither will you. 🙂

TV Reviews

No, no, I didn’t forget about the TV shows! That would never happen.

Last season, two shows tied for first place: Limitless, for being so friggin’ awesome in its first season, and Supernatural for being so friggin’ awesome in its ELEVENTH season! Both shows demonstrated amazing creativity and I had such a great time watching them that it was impossible to choose. I give them both a 9.5 score for the season. Runners-up included my old love, The X-Files, as well as the sparkly newcomer, Lucifer.

Some friends of mine were disgruntled about TXF, as it seemed the network might just be drawing us in with Mulder and Scully, only to reboot a new version of the show starring the recently introduced characters of Miller and Einstein. Personally, I’m withholding judgement until this actually happens. The last time I checked, Season Eleven was listed as a “sure thing” – with the original cast – so we’ll see. I do like the new characters, but Mulder and Scully need to be the stars. Always.

This season I had to make some sacrifices and only watched a few shows religiously. Among those were Lucifer and Supernatural (duh). I loved the mom-drama on both shows, but in the end, Lucifer won out for just being incredible from start to finish. Last year was a little hit-and-miss for me, but this year was DYNAMITE. There was much more focus on the supernatural elements of the show, and the emotions were running a lot higher this year, too.

I’m glad they at least established the beginning of a romance between Chloe and Lucifer. When shows wait too long to introduce romantic interest between the leads, the characters can get stuck in the friend zone. Then, if the writers do decide to put them together down the line, it’s very awkward. (Castle was one show that got this right, while The Mentalist waited too long). The characters don’t have to be together all the time – we just have to know there’s some attraction between them.

Oh, and the Lucifer finale? I just have one word: WINGZZZZZ!!!!! Also, Lucifer gets mega-points for not killing off any beloved characters in the finale. Unlike Supernatural :(. Um, some of those people can come back…right? Please???

Elsewhere on TV: Chicago Fire: We needed more time to get to know Anna before they killed her off. Grimm: Why the heck did they cancel this amazing show??? Emerald City: Too caught up in the glitz of its concept to deliver on an emotional level. This is Us: If you’re not watching it yet, start now! Great show, with many alums from other shows we love, including Smallville and Supernatural. Plus, it’s not getting cancelled anytime soon, so you can watch without fear.

Novel Update

Some of you may recall that I was in the process of editing one of my novels. Last time I posted about it, the book was at 150K words. Now, thanks to an awesome writing partner (and her equally awesome son), the manuscript is at about 106K and still shrinking. That’s down from 300K, people! Cutting your book IS doable.

For more help on cutting words from your manuscript, check out this post:

http://www.rachellegardner.com/how-to-cut-thousands-of-words/ 

Loads of great advice in the comments, too, along with a wonderful quote that sums up the cutting process:

“Every word you cut gives its power to the words that remain.” ~ Cathy’s brother

Wish me luck in getting my book down under 100K, and I hope to be back soon with more news, reviews and other goodies!

~Gretchen

 

New Interview, Plus Two GREAT Writing Resources

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SaveForeverKitty

Many apologies for my recent absence, but I promise it was for a good cause. As my fellow Foreverists know, our beloved show was canceled following the wonderful Season 1 Finale. So, I have been busy trying to #SaveForever and help it get picked up by another venue. If you want to learn more about that effort and what you can do to help, this site usually has up-to-date info:

http://argylepiratewd.tumblr.com/saveforever

Be sure to check out the Facebook pages listed on that site for even more current info. Twitter is also a very happenin’ place when it comes to saving Forever, so look for trending events and other info on there, too.

And now, putting my fangirly stuff aside for a moment (yeah, like I ever really do that), here is my recent interview with Strange Musings Press:

http://giovannivalentino.blogspot.com/2015/04/author-interview-gretchen-bassier.html

We talked about the writing process, rejection, favorite authors, The Muppets, and in the end I went all fangirly (surprise, surprise) on Forever.

Since one of the questions in the interview pertained to writing resources, that sort of smacked me in the head and reminded me that I still haven’t mentioned two of my favorite sites for writers. An oversight that will be rectified right now!

For those just starting out or mired somewhere in the editing process, I cannot give strong enough recommendation for the site Superhero Nation. Don’t let the name fool you. Although Superhero Nation is geared toward helping authors write superhero novels, I have found that the bulk of their advice and articles apply to writing in general. And it’s darn good advice, too. So good that after reading one of their tips, I immediately rewrote a portion of my novel’s first chapter to incorporate their suggestion. As a bonus, this site is for fans, too, and features many reviews of superhero movies and other goodies. Go check out their numerous useful articles (including the awesome 10-part series “Common Mistakes of First-Time Novelists”)!

For those done with editing (does that ever really happen?) and ready to place their work, I highly recommend The Submission Grinder as one of many useful tools in finding the right market for your story/novel. Basically, The Submission Grinder is a free version of Duotrope. It has the same layout and everything. Right now they are only a database for fiction markets, but will soon be adding non-fiction and poetry. And the best part: The Submission Grinder has vowed to remain FREE for all users. I’ve had a lot of luck finding good markets on this site, so definitely worth a look.

Best of luck with your editing and market-hunting!

Up next on ATHF: Stay tuned for some major TV reviews, fic recs, and other fun stuff!