A Novel Creation www.WatersWords.com

It is the fifth Wednesday of the month! Time for an excerpt from my latest WIP! Enjoy! Courtesy Turn is a romance novel for the ...um...senior set. The main Character is a widow in her late fifties named Dottie (so far).  Thank you Google Images “I didn’t tell you this, Carol, but for a bit there, I thought someone was stalking me.” Dottie looked up to see if her friend was laughing at her. No, thank goodness. Carol leaned in. “What happened? When?” Dottie spent the next few minutes outlining details of the mysterious car tailing her through the darkened woods. Funny. It sounded better when I told the cat. “Then the very same car came to my house late the other night, pulled in my driveway with the lights off, and then pulled away suddenly. Just lucky I was across the street with Angie.” It was an embellished version, but sounded more menacing that way. She threw in an exaggerated shiver for effect. “Did you get the number on the license plate? Or the make and model ...

What is it that holds us back? We have dreams and ideas but can’t bring our vision to reality. I ask this because I had a terrible time writing this week. I lost some sense of drive. I lost interest in my projects. I sat down to write this blog post more than a dozen times. Nothing seemed right. Some may call it writer’s block. I don’t think that’s what it is. I have ideas. I have drafts. What was missing in all of those unproductive writing sessions was passion. I lacked a strong desire to write. But why? I’ve done a bit of self-examination and I now offer you these excuses…uh…reasons. My "summer office" 1. Basically, I am a lazy person. This is true. I’ve known it for a long time. It is for me a constant battle. So what do I do to combat this? I am a list maker. I usually make a list the night before for each day’s tasks. Checking items off keeps me moving in the right direction. I didn’t make one list this past week. 2.   I am easily distracted. I was neve...

The third Wednesday of each month I’ve dedicated to featuring another writer. This week I have Heather Gray as my guest. She is so grounded and so delightful you are going to want to read her latest book. I decided today to put the info about Heather’s book right up front…I don’t’ want you to miss it! An Informal Introduction by Heather Gray She saves lives. He protects them. And someone's trying to stop them both . Lily Ziminski is an ICU nurse near the nation’s capital where politics are a regular part of hospital policy. Assigned a series of high-profile patients, she finds herself an unwilling focus of the media. Lily would much rather do without all the attention…except where one cowboy-hat-wearing state trooper is concerned.  Caleb Graham runs into the same captivating nurse twice in one day, and he’s not a man who believes in coincidence. When problems at a local impound lot force him into the middle of a bizarre case that threatens Lily, Caleb will stop at ...

  Editing. I called this piece After the Draft , but actually editing is an ongoing part of the craft of writing. There is rarely –likely never –a “one and done” writing project. There are levels of editing as well as many types of editors. It behooves the novelist to become his or her own first editor. Why? Because hiring an editor can be costly and without a careful combing through the manuscript, a publisher will not be able to look past the awkwardness or errors to see the magic of the story you’ve weaved. The purpose of this post is to examine the types or levels of editing and to point authors in the direction to complete as much of the editing as possible before releasing the manuscript to a professional editor or potential publisher. Copyediting/Proofreading This is considered the lowest level of editing. Don’t let that fool you. Without it your manuscript will die and untimely death in the “circular file.” Copyediting or proofreading is the type of editing...