Stop…don’t delete those words from your novel.

Whether it’s the first, rough draft of your novel, or your final edit, it’s inevitable that you, or your editor, may want to remove sentences, or scenes. That’s okay. Most likely, it’s necessary. However, whatever you do…don’t delete them. Don’t banish them to that cyberspace eternity, leaving them to dissolve and disappear into some unknown infinity…alone and abandoned.

Instead, protect them and save them in a separate file, reserving them for another time. It’s been helpful for me to follow this practice. I’ve found I have gone back to that file often, always grateful I’d been able to rescue these previously rejected words and place them in their new place, in a new story.  Continue reading →

A literary fiction genre, with a retrospective narrative voice is what I’d determined the novel I’m writing to be, and still do. Except I’ve recently had some reservations on a definitive genre and probably will just write it and let my

readers determine what it should be considered once it’s published. This is the best thing for me to do, I’m sure, after reading way too many articles on “genre” and coming to the conclusion to not spend any more time trying to decide where my novel will stand in this arena.

Continue reading →