Author Archives: marialberg

#WriterinMotion: The Second Draft

The Bear’s Breeches Smell Slightly Sweet As They Rot I never saw a man’s face change so fast. He stepped through the door, blocking our view, still laughing with his son. Then he saw me. “You,” he said, then door. “Who is it, Daddy?” from inside. “That rude trespasser from the other day.” Josette scowled upContinue reading “#WriterinMotion: The Second Draft”

This is my consciousness now: #dVerse poets stream of consciousness poem

I enjoy the prompts at dVerse poets pub. They are often timely for my poetry needs and today is no exception. Today’s prompt is some stream of consciousness. Warning: I learned something today that cannot be unlearned. This is my consciousness now I did this. Now I will never be the same me. I willContinue reading “This is my consciousness now: #dVerse poets stream of consciousness poem”

#WriterinMotion Week Two: revision plan

For once, I overwrote. I have a story that needs to be told in less than half as many words, so I thought I’d spend a little time and create a plan for this first revision. This Week’s Revision Plan First steps: print out the story read aloud highlight best lines/parts cross out parts IContinue reading “#WriterinMotion Week Two: revision plan”

#WriterinMotion: The Bear’s Breeches Smell Slightly Sweet As They Rot

I thought I would keep writing about process and tools for the rest of the week, but once I let my character’s speak, the draft consumed. It’s long and could be much longer. I see this idea like a House of Sand and Fog meets child services and the now of crazy, but it’s justContinue reading “#WriterinMotion: The Bear’s Breeches Smell Slightly Sweet As They Rot”

#WriterinMotion: Outlines and other pre-drafting thoughts

Outlining Last year, as I was reading a couple books to help me finally get a handle on how to use all the bells and whistles of Scrivener, I set up a template with the Save the Cat beats as my chapter sections and created an idea section that includes all of the different plotsContinue reading “#WriterinMotion: Outlines and other pre-drafting thoughts”

#WriterinMotion – Playing with some plots

There are many different ways to approach plotting and I have studied and tried a bunch. Most plots, and thus outlines, follow a form of Three Act Structure and I have found that this is true for short form as well as long form. I’ll start with The Hero’s Journey. Using ideas from Arwen Lynch’sContinue reading “#WriterinMotion – Playing with some plots”

#WriterinMotion – the brainstorm

After my first thoughts, I printed out the image on a nice piece of matte photo paper. The colors printed even more vibrantly and got me thinking about color meaning and how I will use the colors in my story. I recently talked about specifics of color naming and thought I would start there. TheContinue reading “#WriterinMotion – the brainstorm”

#WriterinMotion Begins! the prompt

To my surprise, I’ll be working from a visual prompt: this lovely photograph by Rahul Pandit of a small house in nature. This project being about sharing the process from draft creation to polished piece, I thought I would share from the very beginning of my process, through brainstorming to idea before I get toContinue reading “#WriterinMotion Begins! the prompt”

Writer In Motion: A five week writing and revising challenge

Summer is here. The weather is gorgeous, but sweaty-hot. Levi and I are adjusting though motivationally-challenged. He gets away with napping and bathing all day, but my stories won’t write themselves. So, I found a challenge to keep me working through August. For the next five weeks, starting August 1st, I will be participating inContinue reading “Writer In Motion: A five week writing and revising challenge”