Laurel

What’s interesting about my summer reading (Crime and Punishment) is that I could really see what unknown guilt does to a person. Instead of hitting readers over the head with a message about how sin destroys a person, Dostoyevsky shows the protagonist growing unhappier and more hateful and broken after he commits his crime. I’m not sure how it…[Read more]

@gabriellepollack @jenwriter17

Just wanted to give y’all what is hopefully a final update on Holly’s situation. While we were out of town she monkeyed out of her cone and took out her stitches, but now she’s at a new vet where they’ve been keeping her calm and treating her. I went to visit her yesterday and she was very happy to see me! It was…[Read more]

@gabriellepollack Thank you!  Essentially this entire summer, but with renewed effort in the past two weeks. It’s a fascinating book but it’s so philosophical I can’t handle more than two chapters at a time!

To my surprise and pleasure, I added around a chapter or two to my novel! Most of that was copy-pasted and tweaked from an earlier version but I’ll take it nonetheless. Now, on to finishing Crime and Punishment…

I haven’t set too many goals since I’ve been on vacation and since I still need to prep for the SAT and do my summer reading I’m not sure how much time I’ll have to write. But I’d like to add around a chapter to my book this week, if possible.

Good luck with y’all’s goals!

@libby absolutely! My email is laurelannwood@gmail.com and I can totally just look at the word document. I’m excited to help out! Sorry I didn’t respond earlier!

@libby I’d love to! School starts in a few weeks for me but I’d be happy to help since I have some time before then 🙂 let me know what I can do!

I haven’t really thought about this before! I write mainly about rural East Texas in the 1990s (random, I know) but I guess that has a distinct imprint. One of my characters is especially poor and his family doesn’t spend too much time together because the five of them can barely keep their farm afloat. Joy and patience are encouraged because the…[Read more]

@sleepwalkingmk What you said about diverging from standard grammar was really neat! I find myself doing that more and more nowadays. I took AP Language and Composition last year and learned a bunch of new literary devices and it’s fun to try and turn them on their head. 🙂

Now that I’m thinking about it I guess you could omit commas and use “an…[Read more]

@fawxofthecomics Welcome to the family! It’s so cool that you do graphic novels—I’ve never met anyone who does that before! Good luck with all your current projects!

@jenwriter17 @gabriellepollack

Thank y’all once again for y’all’s prayers. They took an inch or two off and it’s noticeably shorter, but long story short they were able to close the cut and get rid of the infection because of it. It’s a bit funny to look at but I’m starting to get used to it 🙂 Thank y’all again. For now it looks like the nigh…[Read more]

@jenwriter17 @gabriellepollack

Thank y’all so much for praying. My mom just took her to the vet and all of a sudden they think they’ll have to amputate the tip. Just about an inch, nothing too drastic, but I’m just worried sick over it. Please pray that the surgery will go well if they have to do it and that Holly won’t mess with the bandage…[Read more]

@gabriellepollack thank you so much for asking! Slightly better—we added a syringe case to the end because she kept whacking her tail on everything and it’s helped quite a bit. Because of that we’ve had to take her for a daily bandage change, but it’s improved to the point where we can wait a few days between bandages.

I did have a scare two day…[Read more]

I try to vary sentence lengths for impact—like long, long, then short to build tension and release it. I feel like long sentences can either lull the reader into a sense of calm or build tension and anticipation depending on the context. A lot of short sentences might be used at once so the reader can fill in the details, perhaps during a p…[Read more]

For me personally, I’m likely to put a book down if I’m shocked right out of the gate. I remember that the first few pages of my pre-freshman year summer reading assignment used so many unnecessary profanities and obscenities that I wanted to throw it across the room. The rest of the book didn’t get much better.

I think shock does have a time…[Read more]

Hey folks!

Hope you’re all doing well! I have just a minor prayer request—my dog got the end of her tail caught in the car door the other day and she’s busted it open a few times since then. We might have to amputate part of it if it doesn’t get better and I’m worried sick over it. Would y’all mind praying for her? She’s quite literally my…[Read more]

@libby I’m so glad you’re feeling better! I’ll definitely be praying <3 on a lighter note, it’s great to meet another historical fiction writer! Hope you recover fast and rest well!

@christianna-hellwig oh my bad! Can’t read these days haha 🙂

@christianna-hellwig I think it was around 2500 words? Not 100% sure though.