Making a Literary Life Friday: Discoveries

In the spirit of Columbus Day, celebrating Cristoforo Columbo's discovery of a place other people already lived, what have you discovered of late of your own writing, process, or approach to writing that deserves a nod this holiday?

Lisa Marnell
There are two ways to put this. Either, "Trust Yourself", or "Don't let your ADD interfere with your writing." In reading books on writing craft, I rarely hear about the phenomenon of writers completely changing their work, or thinking about changing plot (in a major way) in the final hours. I am so close to the finish line that it must be nerves, or self-doubt, or disbelief.

Amy MacKinnon
I've discovered that before I can became truly immersed in the writing, I must first do most of my research. I need to have that foundation of facts to build a fictious world. Research is one of my absolute favorite parts of the writing process.

Hannah Roveto
I have been reading novels with shifting narrators and viewpoints. Whether I decide to tackle this with the emerging WIP is yet to be determined, but this is definitely a new shore I feel prepared to land upon and explore.

Lynne Griffin
Like a good map, editorial feedback points me in the direction of the story. What I've learned is that only I can take the story the distance. And I still believe revision is a wonderful thing!

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A few people of note this week:

Congratulations to friend of the blog, Therese Fowler, on the sale of her next two books. Very impressive!

A huge round of applause to Kim Reid for winning the Colorado Book Award for her debut No Safe Place. What an accomplishment!

And finally, three cheers to faithful blog readers Ello, Holly LeCraw, and Ray Anderson for recently signing with their dream agents. Onward and upward!