Aspiring Novelists

Hello All, Sorry I haven't updated my blog in a while, but I've been busy reviewing and re-outlining my novel. The rest of my free time has been devoted to getting my house spic and span.  Not your everyday dusting and mopping mind you, but deep cleaning. I re-organized cabinets and closets, threw old junk out and made room for the new. So far I've donated six bags of old clothes to Good Will. Two trash bags filled with old magazines will never see the light of day again. Expired canned goods that sat accusingly in the back of my pantry are now food for the rats at the dump. I even alphabetized the books on my shelves. Talk about type "A".... Perhaps I'm unconsciously working through the problems in my book as I clean. Then when I return to my outline the issues are resolved and the ideas flow. Whatever is going on it's working, so I won't analyze it too much.   I'd be interested to know if anyone else had a similar experience? How ...

Hello All, I hope life is treating you well. I would like nothing more than to tell you things are going splendidly here in my neck of the woods, but that would be a stretch. I recently submitted the first chapter of my work-in-progress to an online critique room for review. Unfortunately, the comments I received were quite disappointing. The majority of reviewers thought my characters were one dimensional and my approach was clichéd. I guess beginning a novel with a murder in a hospital room has been done to death. I tucked my tail and pouted for a few days, seeking solace in the joy of cookie dough ice cream. Ten thousand calories later, I had a revelation. Re-writing is part of the process. I put on my big girl pants and decided it was time to fix the problems in my manuscript. Before sitting down to write, I thought it would be prudent to conduct some research on the elements of an interesting character. One example that resonated with me was Hannibal Lector...