Ty Roper

I wanted to join a critique group, so I joined a critique group in March. We meet every other week. It’s a good sized group with seven regular attenders in the general fiction group, and six of us in the sci-fi group.

I thought, this is it, if I can prove my writing out here i’ll be good to go.

I’ve quickly learned that the group has valuable input and points out areas that need work. But, I…

I finished this morning. I’m excited. I’m exhausted. My face itches.

Now to leave it alone for a few weeks before fixing all the continuity errors and other editing stuffs.

I hope to have it ready for my short list of beta readers sometime in May (ha). Everything seems to take longer than I planned. It will be three years this May since I started thinking about this book. The book is…

8 Scenes to go

Sigh. I thought I’d be excited and “rarin ta go” at this point in the book. I thought there would be music and dancing and prancersizing. I thought I’d be like “phew glad that slog is over with”. Or even VICTORY SWEET VICTORY!

But, I suppose all of youse out there that have already finished a book or two or eight know, it feels sad, like you’re about to say goodbye to an old friend, tell a…

4:30 is whiskey and water time. That’s an important, wait, essential part of my day. Especially since my boys got me a bottle of Bushmill’s 16-year. One shot a day. The other thing that is essential is writing. I’ve been on vacation since the 19th of December and have worked on my book for 16 of those 17 days. I completed the second section of the book, and got in a bit over 2k words today to…

…for a little while. I’m on vacation, hoohah! I started vacation back on the 19th, last Friday. I don’t go back until Jan 5.  That gives me 16 full days free to write. Double hoohah! There’s really 17 days in that stretch, but I’ll take Christmas day off.

Right now the routine is:

Wake up at 5am and eat oatmeal, mostly, or Cheerios

Read through my facebook newsfeed

Read the chapters from my…

“I’m not a very good writer, but I’m an excellent rewriter.” ~ James Michener

I hope I can be a good rewriter. I need that.

Yep, it has been. I’ve been off since last Saturday and have one more day. This week I’ve kept a 1,000+ word a day pace and will finish up a good first draft of the first act of the book. And I’ve kept a family life together by writing in the mornings whilst the rest are sleeping. Me and the Mrs. got to see Brandi Carlile last night with the Seattle Symphony. Wow, when she comes through your…

I started off my writing journey as a full on pantser, just writing as the words and images coursed from my brain to the page. I wrote out of sequence. I wrote adverbally. Every day was an adventure. The story emerged on the page. I discovered who the characters were, what they were like, what they were doing, and where they were going.

Then I got stuck.

Why. Yep that was the question. Why were…

Two Years of Learning

Two years. I started this blog two years ago as an accountability partner for myself. To keep myself writing. To track my progress, ups, and downs.

UPs:

The act of writing itself

Encouragement from other WordPress bloggers

Meeting other writers at the PNWA annual conference

Working with my first editor

Working with my author coach

Finishing a draft of the full book

Getting positive feedback from…

I’m quickly coming up on two years work on this book. Seems like a long time, but it is my first, and I’ve learned a bunch. I’ve learned better by doing than if I’d started in classes. Sure I’ve taken classes and read books along the way, but they didn’t make sense to me until I was facing problems with my own work.

So, why is it a new beginning? Because I wrote a new beginning to my novel. I’ve…

I recently went through every scene in my book and created an editorial map using guidance from Fiction University’s Janice Hardy. Plug: Fiction University is a great blog with relevant daily advice for writers. http://blog.janicehardy.com/.

The first part of creating an editorial map means going scene by scene and documenting these elements.

(from Janice Hardy’s guest post at http://writersinthe…

Comparing Ourselves to Other Writers – Chuck Wendig

No cease fire. No armistice.

Originally posted on Bipolar Library Director:

This is a modified version of a post I made on my personal facebook last night, on the death of Robin Williams, a great artist who has openly admitted to being “manic” and suffering from depression.  I don’t know if he was ever diagnosed with bipolar disorder itself, but if there’s anything more needed than manias and depressions, I’m not sure what…

Legends of Windemere Book Trailer!

tyroper:

An engaging fantasy series with an interesting world, epic battles, magic and interesting characters. Book trailer covering the first four books and preparing us for the fifth book!

Originally posted on Legends of Windemere:

HERE IT IS! THE LEGENDS OF WINDEMERE BOOK TRAILER! HELP SPREAD THE WORD AND CHECK IT OUT ON YOUTUBE!

I find these kinds of posts helpful, so I thought I would share the tools I use for my writing.

Number one. Most important is Scrivener. I would be lost without this tool. I can write scene by scene into separate notes/documents, keep multiple versions, organize them into chapters when I’m ready, and collate a selection of them into a draft manuscript ready for printing or my Kindle. I do my…

In Praise of Writer Conferences

  My second writers conference. Four days of learning and encouragement. I focused on craft this year, Character Development, Tension, POV, Dialogue, World Building, Scene Structure, & Editing. Great stuffs, great teachers. The most difficult and most beneficial part was being an introvert among introverts and trying to make personal connection with other writers. I’m not good at it, but did…

Recently, I was invited to participate in an author blog chain where I answer a few questions about my book and the way I write. I’m thanking my author coach and fantasy author Lindsay Schopfer for the invitation. (Lindsay’s Amazon page for his two books – Under Two Moon’s and The Beast Hunter).Check out his blog as he discusses his writing, the classes he teaches for the PNWA (Pacific Northwest…