Sunday night, I tied up my sneakers and called my younger son to hurry up for drum lessons: "Come on, Dallas, we gotta go!" Strange? Yeah. Because Dallas isn't my kid's name. Nor is it the name of my older son, my husband, dog, cat, nephew, neighbour, or anybody else I talk to regularly and… Continue reading Coming Up for Air
Category: writing
In Defence of Outlines
I’ve met so many writers who don’t outline. They say, “If I knew what was going to happen, I wouldn’t care enough to write the story.” Those words always make me feel odd and out of place, for I am not that way. I outline. My outlines are twenty pages long. Even before I outline,… Continue reading In Defence of Outlines
Always Someone’s Story
I'm halfway through scene-by-scene revisions on my novel. (These are the big revisions; I'll still have cutting and polishing after I'm done—it never ends). Saturday morning, I reread the revised 140 pages and grew depressed because the first few pages were dull, dull, dull. It gets good—it gets REALLY good—but it takes a while. A cover letter… Continue reading Always Someone’s Story
Stone by Stone
I am slowly but surely building a novel from my messy draft. Some days I only have time to edit a few pages - slim progress on what seems like an impossibly large job. But even pyramids were built stone by stone, so surely I can finish a book the same way. There are writers for whom editing is not such a huge… Continue reading Stone by Stone
Good News
First, my plane did not crash. (Make that planes, five of them, and not a single one crashed. What luck!) So I am back at home, alive, perfectly able to edit my draft novel/monstrosity before anyone reads it. But after two weeks vacation, I really don't feel like it. We're having a mild spell in central Canada, the days are getting longer… Continue reading Good News
Catherine Austen 