{"id":1637,"date":"2012-01-21T19:54:42","date_gmt":"2012-01-22T02:54:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dresan.com\/blog\/?p=1637"},"modified":"2017-04-08T20:56:57","modified_gmt":"2017-04-09T03:56:57","slug":"the-centaurs-pen-at-write-to-the-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dresan.com\/blog\/2012\/01\/21\/the-centaurs-pen-at-write-to-the-end\/","title":{"rendered":"The Centaur’s Pen at Write to the End"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I’m part of a fantabulous writing group called Write to the End<\/a> that meets at Mission City Coffee. This group, which started at Barnes and Noble at Steven’s Creek before the economy and contracting book market convinced B&N to cut back on their community programs, has been the best thing for my writing productivity since … well, ever. I’d even stopped doing National Novel Writing Month<\/a> until I started attending the WTTE, but now I do Nano every year … and go to the writing group almost every Tuesday. SO … it’s now time to give back.<\/p>\n

I’ll be doing a monthly column on the WTTE blog titled “The Centaur’s Pen.<\/a>” In it, I will write about writing: about why to write, what to write, how to write, how to edit, how to get published — and how to behave AFTER you get published. Now, I am not a great writer, but I’m trying very hard, I think about writing almost all the time, and I’ve spent a lot of time talking to other aspiring writers and learning about the art, craft and business of writing. So I hope my insights will be of use to you!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nJanuary’s inaugural article<\/a> is on “Learning from Publication:” how seeing your work in print can be an opportunity to improve your craft, even though you can no longer change it. An excerpt follows:<\/p>\n

Recently I wrote a short story called \u201cSteampunk Fairy Chick\u201d for the UnCONventional<\/em> anthology. Even though the story went through many revisions, lots of beta readers, two editors and a copyeditor, when I read through my author\u2019s copy I found there were still things I wanted to change. Nothing major\u2014just line edit stuff, a selection of different choices of sentence structure that I think would have made the story more readable.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t react to this the way I would with a draft; the story\u2019s in print. And I don\u2019t want to just throw these insights on the floor. Instead, I want to analyze the story and find general ideas I could have applied that would have improved the story before it hit the stands\u2014ideas I could use in the future on new stories.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To read more, click through to Write to the End and “Learning from Publication<\/a>.” If you want to read the story the article is talking about, click through to Amazon and buy the UnCONventional<\/em> anthology (in print<\/a> or ebook<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Enjoy!<\/p>\n

-the Centaur<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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