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Caitlin Gemmell's avatar

This was just what I needed to read this morning as I’m about to switch gears from poetry (my focus for most of this year) to prose. I’m planning a major rewrite of my first novel and the task seems daunting. Your tips are helping me to power through it. Have you heard of Daniel David Wallace? I highly recommend his character driven novel writing course.

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Wayne Bromiley's avatar

Your writing is outstanding Caitlin. Love reading every bit you have posted and published so far so I already know the novel will be wonderful.

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Selkie Grove's avatar

I'm so glad you found the tips helpful. I haven't heard of Daniel David Wallace, thank you for the recommendation!

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Jennie Marie Ryan's avatar

I love the one page novel method! It's helped me so much. Taking days off is so important, too. I take Sunday off and just telling myself I CAN'T write that day has me itching for Monday when I can! These are all such wonderful tips.

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Selkie Grove's avatar

I'm so, so, happy that you found One Page Novel too. It's changed my writing life for the better :)

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E.Scott's avatar

Thanks so much for this! The one-page novel links have given me lots to ponder as I approach the second part of my own novel in progress. I've found myself pondering the best approach to plotting and going back to basics to try to clarify my thinking by writing about it. All the best, E https://signalsourcewriting.substack.com/p/losing-or-finding-the-plot

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Selkie Grove's avatar

I can't recommend One Page Novel highly enough. I felt stuck for years and despaired that I'd ever finish a novel. When I found Eva's course it felt like all the struggle and stress of novel writing melted away.

Good luck with your novel in progress!

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E.Scott's avatar

Thank you!

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Kerani Arpaia's avatar

I love this Kate. It’s so important to remember that creative passions don’t have to be painful. I agree, that image of the struggling artist has been glorified to the point that we seem to believe art = pain. That coupled with the pressure of hustle culture to work hard and produce content can lead us to a very toxic place. I’ve just recently come to a place with my photography where I’ve realized I don’t want to make for other people anymore - just myself. And that’s been an incredibly freeing realization.

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Selkie Grove's avatar

That must feel very calming to create purely for yourself. I agree, hustle culture and the starving artist stereotype is a particularly toxic potion!

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Rowan MacKay's avatar

I was just saying to my critique partner yesterday that there HAS to be a better way to draft my sequel than to spend months and months on end scribbling out an appalling first draft (really more of a zeroth draft), only to use it for nothing more than to create an outline for the *actual* first draft. And while this used to be fun, because there's that broad expanse of possibility before you every time you start typing, I also don't want to have 3 years between the first book coming out and the sequel if I can help it, which means I kind of need my FIRST draft of this book to be decent, or at least very fast. Plus now that I've seen how much BETTER my "first draft" writing can be after drafting my first book off an outline off a scrapped prior draft (which in turn was a rewrite of a scrapped prior draft, which was a rewrite of a scrapped prior draft), I just notice how bad what I'm writing right now is, because it turns out that I *can* draft a semi-decent story, if I have all the groundwork laid already.

And so I'm off to check out the One Page Novel!

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Selkie Grove's avatar

One Page Novel will definitely get you a first draft that's in good order fast. I felt so liberated after I took the course and editing became so much easier once I was working with a decent first draft.

I can really relate to your comment because I struggled for years with multiple 'zero' drafts, but I promise it does get better once you're able to get a bird's eye view of the story you're writing. I'm cheering you on!

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Wayne Bromiley's avatar

A major enjoyment in my life has been reading so of course one of my biggest dreams has been to be able to write like my literary hero's. Of course I cannot so that's led to a big disappointment in myself. Think I'm lacking any and all imagination so that flaw stops that dream. But, I can appreciate those of you that can imagine and bring to life on the page the characters and stories that color my life. Thank you for all the wonderful stories Kate, enjoy every one of them.

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Selkie Grove's avatar

Perhaps your inner critic is holding you back from writing? Your comments are always so eloquent, you certainly have a knack for words! When I started writing I used to feel so frustrated that I couldn't write like the authors I looked up to. Then I realised that I'd made life difficult for myself by comparing my fledgling attempts with authors who'd been writing for years. Giving myself permission to write badly helped me finish stories I'd otherwise have abandoned. And I also feel that our early attempts are never as bad as we think they are, it's just that pesky inner critic showing up to berate us!

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Lynden Wade's avatar

Nice to read something that contradicts the "tortured author" idea. The one-page novel sounds like it achieves the same thing as the draft synopsis I've learned about in another course - really sorting out the arc and themes. And I love the idea of having the affirmations in the underwear drawer!

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Selkie Grove's avatar

Yes, One Page Novel takes you through 8 basic plot points. I've found that it seamlessly weaves plot, character, and theme to make the plotting process as simple as possible (a plus for me!). One of the things I enjoyed most about the course was plotting out of order. For example, you start with your protagonist's end state and then reverse engineer so that you know how the story ends almost immediately.

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Lynden Wade's avatar

It sounds a really helpful course.

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Wayne Bromiley's avatar

That helps immensely!! Thank You very much.

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Wayne Bromiley's avatar

Thank You Kate! Definitely a true assessment, my inner critic has always been the harshest. One question to ask and hopefully not too dumb. Do writers write from emotion and passion or from imagination? Maybe what I'm asking is it more "heart" or "brain" to write a story??

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Selkie Grove's avatar

Personally, I find emotion comes first. Perhaps a feeling or powerful memory I want to explore, then the logical part of my brain tries to shape it into a satisfying story. Other writers might be different! The "brain" side - arranging stories into a coherent plot, sentence structure, word choice, etc can all be learned. If you read, enjoy and connect with your favourite books then you already understand story on an intuitive level - it just takes some practise to write your own. Hope that helps!

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Sep 16, 2022
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Selkie Grove's avatar

Oh, I so agree!

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