Author Archive: Jill Caugherty
A Writer’s Revision Obsession
A Writer’s Revision Obsession Types frantically at keyboard… Rereads and deletes… Sighs… Just one more edit… before submitting to critique partners, beta readers, agents, publishers. Yes, I’m that writer—desperate to tweak a sentence or adjust a character’s dialogue one last time. Perfectionist is a generous word to describe this obsession; anal-retentive is more accurate. Ring […]
What’s at Stake in Your Novel?
By Jill Caugherty What keeps readers riveted to a favorite novel, compulsively turning the pages? Sure, fast-paced action with car chases, gun fights, drug deals gone awry, and racy sex scenes might help, but many writers of character-driven fiction don’t rely on these techniques to ratchet up the tension. Instead, we often create conflict, and […]
Finding the Inspiration to Write Part-Time
Given the wave of scary, depressing news, it’s often difficult to pick up the proverbial pen, regardless of whether you write for a living or do it part-time. I’m no exception. As my full-time job, I’m a product manager in the high tech industry, where I’ve held a wide range of software development and marketing […]
Surviving Hardship: What We Can Learn From History
Why Write about the Great Depression? By Jill Caugherty People sometimes ask why I chose the Great Depression as one of the central time periods of my novel, Waltz in Swing Time. After all, they reason, it’s a dreary chapter in history. One bookseller remarked, “we don’t want to relive it.” Perhaps that’s why a […]
On Revision: Reframing the House, Painting, and Applying the Finishing Touches
by Jill Caugherty Over ten years ago, in 2008, I began writing my historical novel, WALTZ IN SWING TIME. I had no firm plans other than to base the story loosely on my grandmother’s life and learn from my mistakes with an earlier shelved autobiographical manuscript. Little did I realize that the novel would morph […]
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