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Kate B's avatar

Saving this one for future reference/the moments I know are coming of wishing I had a box lid picture to guide me through my novel draft. I remember working on seemingly impossible puzzles and wondering at the intense focus they require on one tiny piece of a picture: that green line intersecting with that blue dot: "Oh, I never expected the edge of a meadow to look like that." Novel writing also requires intense focus on one gesture. Sometimes I work on on one conversation for days...you solve that scene and move on to the next. Readers will whip by that page in a few minutes, never knowing the close focus I took to make that one bit a coherent part of the whole thing.

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Allison Kirkland's avatar

I'll definitely be revisiting this piece as I work through my own manuscript. So many gems here. This was one of my favorite reminders: "There’s no award for gritting your teeth and grunting through a very hard part of your writing. If something is truly flummoxing me on the page, I redirect toward a more approachable area of the text." Say it louder for the people in the back!

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