Tag: editing
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New Book – The Mermaid of Rose Hill – Out Soon!
Here is a photo of me with a case of lazy bed head, holding a proof copy of my new novel, which I plan to release this month. The Mermaid has been my project for the last two years or more. It began as an urban fantasy, but I decided to challenge myself and write […]
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Around the Literary World in a Year
A new year always brings with it pressure to come up with a resolution. Though setting goals often feels like a trend, I don’t like ignoring a clean slate. I don’t plan to do anything mind-blowing this year, but I know where I hope to be when roaring 2020 comes in. Writing-wise, 2019 will see […]
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My Struggle with Perfectionism
Do you know your biggest obstacle against creativity? As a writer, perfectionism has kept me from making a good deal of progress. Much is said about Writer’s Block or the phobia of cliches being reasons why we don’t make progress. We rarely address a hidden problem. It’s the idea of striving to write a scene […]
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The Forest of Heldbreath
Imagine your mind is a forest. The edge of the forest is a place where you pause and get distracted–a place of heldbreath, of course. Sometimes we wait at the edge of heldbreath for days, months, or years. I’ve been lurking there for several weeks, skillfully talking myself out of a very important task. Should […]
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Writing: The Learning Process
Too many writers talk and act as if writing were slow torture. … As New York sports writer Red Smith once observed, “Writing is easy. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein.” … If you want to write, here’s a secret: the writer’s struggle is overrated, a con game, […]
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On Mermaid Tales & Short Stories
I may have completed edits for Serenade (which I still expect to release sometime in October,) but that doesn’t mean I’ve stepped away from these characters and their adventures. It has been a fun week of world-building and character profiling. My personal copy of Dissonance is currently full of sticky notes! They were placed to […]
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On Finishing Serenade & Old Clichés
There is a curious emptiness many writers feel when a project is finally done. I’ve finished editing Serenade, and find myself searching for ways to pass the time—plotting a new novel, or working on my TBR pile. It’s tempting to keep searching the document for things to edit, but I’ve already made all the changes […]
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Edits & Expectations
I’ve been on hiatus for several weeks now. Yesterday, it took a long time for me to muster the courage to open Serenade and start final edits. Perhaps I was afraid it would need rewriting. In the past, I could only make my stories better by rewriting entire chapters. This time, it’s not the case. […]
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Road to Serenade – Day 1
When you’re a writer, time goes by slowly. Maybe it’s because we play with time in the stories we tell; everything appears bigger and full of mystery. It feels like years have passed since I started drafting Serenade. I completed the first version in early January, and in the time since then, I’ve learned a lot […]
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Dealing with Manuscript Fright
Writing a book is one of the most difficult things in the world. Having just finished a novel this week, I feel like it’s the most difficult thing. Even now that I have an almost-complete draft, putting it away for a month remains a challenge. My mind won’t settle; it keeps insisting that I have […]
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Writing Update: The Spontaneous Novella
As I stated in this post, when I am immersed in a writing project my blog suffers. It’s been weeks since my last post; every day I had the intentions of writing a review, since I did quite a bit of reading despite the writing and edits, but there never seemed to be time. Since my […]
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Writing Update: On Short Novels
I’m taking another break from editing Serenade, and thought this an appropriate time for an update. I get so caught up in the editing process that I forget to tell people how I’m doing. I’ve learned many things since editing began, but perhaps the biggest lesson is that my books tend to be short. It’s been a […]
Mariella Hunt 