Monthly Archives: August 2011

Six Sentence Sunday, 28 August 2011 (The Lost Pissarro)

Posted on August 28, 2011 by epbeaumont

She shook her head, to clear the dream: she’d slipped, momentarily, into the person of a raven soaring over a line of knights on horseback. Clearly not her real self. The unicorn foal not twenty paces away shook its head … Continue reading →

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The ten-percent solution: a tale of literary liposuction

Posted on August 27, 2011 by epbeaumont

I’ve heard this advice from multiple sources: Write, and then cut 10%. I’m here to say it works. No, I’m here to say how it works. Between 5 August and 19 August, I banged out the draft of my superhero … Continue reading →

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Lessons from National Novel Writing Month: a charter for your novel

Posted on August 25, 2011 by epbeaumont

One of the really valuable lessons of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is thinking out what you love and what you hate in a novel. In Chris Baty’s classic manual for the event, No Plot? No Problem!, this is called … Continue reading →

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Novel soup, or how to cook a superhero romance

Posted on August 22, 2011 by epbeaumont

Novel pre-writing is a lot like making soup. Here’s the stuff I threw in the cookpot for my Superhero Romance project, currently in raw draft and being beta-read: Superhero romance. OK, for some reason I liked the setup. I read … Continue reading →

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Six Sentence Sunday, 21 August 2011 (The Lost Pissarro)

Posted on August 21, 2011 by epbeaumont

The world had shifted around them, and Angie Stavros took a sort of grim satisfaction in it, that now most of the world felt as dislocated as she did. Welcome to my world, she thought as she caught a glimpse … Continue reading →

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Goals check-in (September 1 goal): we have a draft!

Posted on August 20, 2011 by epbeaumont

Well, I’ve met part of my goal for September 1 (see last post): the superhero romance is in raw draft, at 33,000 words. I took off some vacation days from Ye Olde Day Jobbe to do that (what better use … Continue reading →

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Writing goals for the next six months

Posted on August 16, 2011 by epbeaumont

It’s better to start small than to promise big things and fall short. I’ve been modest in updating this blog, doing Six Sentence Sunday and the occasional during-the-week update. Nonetheless, I know myself for a “real writer” now (you know, … Continue reading →

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Six Sentence Sunday, 14 August 2011 (The Shape-shifter’s Tale)

Posted on August 14, 2011 by epbeaumont

I walk the colonnade of the vast stadium, its staircases rising past the locked gates. Along the top runs a frieze in which the counties are carved, all ninety-eight of them, geography in alphabetical order. The colonnade curves, outsize, all … Continue reading →

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Six Sentence Sunday, 7 August 2011 (Erika and the Vampire)

Posted on August 7, 2011 by epbeaumont

Erika knew who they were, Zack’s band, as if they weren’t totally blatant about it, with a name like Vlad and the Impalers. Vampire rock, with a lead singer named Drakul aka Drake, who used to be Zack. The drummer, … Continue reading →

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