Sabrina's Blog

Feeling good after today. I made great progress on my book. Progress sure helps lift spirits when the metaphysical mud has been sucking at your feet. Writing happens in surges for me. I have periods of rapid progress followed by days of slow to no progress. Today marked that switch. I finished a couple chapters after struggling on one for the last week. The slow periods usually happen when something needs to be removed and I am resistant. My stubbornness has always been the source of my biggest roadblocks in life. I always have to learn things the hard way because I think I know everything until I figure out I don't. As a child, my mom told me I would regret wanting to grow up so quickly. I just knew she was wrong, until I turned 18, moved out, and had to start paying my own bills. My dad told me I should wait to get married back in 2002, I said he was wrong. I discovered my error when I joined the divorce statistic in 2005. My mom told...

My friend, Angela, and I attended our monthly writer's group meeting yesterday. We were fortunate to hear Steffie Corcoran, Editor of the magazine Oklahoma Today, talk about self-editing. Ms. Corcoran emphasized the need for writers to think like an editor when polishing their manuscript. I took notes and enjoyed what she had to say, but I must admit that my favorite moment of the meeting came when Ms. Corcoran had us do a writing exercise. We were asked to bring a piece of our current work in progress or we could choose to work on a piece she brought with her. Ang and I both chose our own work. We were told to take the first paragraph or two and rewrite it. The point being to come up with a fabulous opening sentence. Initially, I sat in my chair completely stumped. I liked my lead line. Then I remembered one of the things Ms. Corcoran had just told me. "Kill all your precious angels. If you are emotionally attached to a lead, sentence, or character then get rid of it....

Writing Buddies. You know who they are if you are also a writer. Those priceless people who are not just friends or family that support your dream. They are people who have the dream to be a writer like you. They understand when you send them something to read, you are really sending them something to critique. They understand that you are waiting on pins and needles to hear what they have to say, so they do not put off reading it for weeks. They understand when you hit a metaphysical wall and freak out. They also help you pull the wall apart brick by brick. I have two of the greatest writing buddies in existence. At least that is my opinion. If they were your writing buddies, I know you would agree with me.  Angela and Erin are two great writers who have the same dream that I do. We support each other through the hard stuff that our non-writer friends just do not understand. We support each other when one of us feels the need to go on about our book because something just ...

After this last weekend, I am drained. Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday I yo-yo'd between extreme ends of 'glass is half-full' vs. 'glass is half-empty' frame of mind. In other words, I hit the metaphysical wall and completely stalled out. Most of the time writing this book is so easy. The writing just seems to flow out of me like water. The ideas just seem to be sitting there waiting on me to let my guard down so they can flood my mind with all the possibilities. The last four days were different. I experienced an epic battle between knowing I can do this and feeling like I am delusional for daring to think that I even have a fraction of the talent needed to write a project like mine. I felt bruised and beaten. Every time I would sit in front of my computer to write, my head would begin pounding. I tried to force the words for three days. Negative thoughts flooded my mind. I felt depressed. I had no idea where to go with the scene I was supp...

I have been told by other authors that one of things an author should remember is to KEEP READING. It is so easy to get wrapped up in your own writing and not make time to just enjoy reading a book that is not your own. I thought this was common sense, but I have run into writers who say they do not read as much if ever since they began writing. How sad! There is so much you can learn from reading work from other writers...especially within your own genre. I have been so caught up in my own writing that I failed to realize until two days ago that my favorite author is releasing a fourth book to my favorite series! What!?! How could I have been so negligent?! At the same time, I wish I could go on being ignorant of this until November when the new book comes out, because I am ready to run out and purchase it now! I will admit to not reading as much as I work to get my own debut manuscript finished, but I still manage to find time. I would not dream of ignoring t...