Howdy,
I’ve been back from Kauai for a week now. Back to rewriting and editing and editing some more.
I’ve also been working my way through Donald Maass’ The Emotional Craft of Fiction. It’s a thin book but loaded with thought-provoking advice. Maass argues that to make a novel really stand out and stick in the reader’s memory, it needs to help the reader take her own emotional journey while reading it. The book is full of tips and exercises to help achieve that effect. I’m only about two-thirds of the way through the book, and I’m already applying what I’ve learned to my writing.
This is a great craft book, highly recommended. I’ll share some of the lessons I’ve learned once I finish reading it.