Musings Of A New Southern Man

There is no more important part of the writing process than revisions. It's nice to have a basic story line that shines through on the first draft. That won't carry the freight. What a good novel becomes is based on the amount of hammering you do to subject matter and characters, and how honest you are with your work in pursuit of your goals. Be ruthless. Have no pet ideas. Don't fear those times you know you must tear up chapters. There is a caveat. Make sure your characters' reactions make sense as you lead them through the development of the character arc. Keep them real amid the chaos. The best piece of advice I got from my first-draft beta readers was that one character's reaction to a major plot point didn't make sense. My main female character just had an event of shattering importance, but I had her sharing a laugh with her partner a short time later. Sorry, but that didn't fit the events, and I didn't write it as if it happened simply as an ...

A former co-worker was the first I saw charge that all Caucasian employees have the advantage of white privilege. I laughed and labeled it as the latest wave of thought designed to find perpetrators for victims. I laughed because of my upbringing. I was born in The Dalles, Oregon, which isn't an epicenter of wealth and status. It's a town of about 10,000 residents on the banks of the Columbia River. It is known for cherries, wheat, winds funneled through the Columbia River Gorge, and a key historic spot for Lewis and Clark and the pioneers who ventured west on the Oregon Trail. It was a good place to grow up, at least for me. It was small enough that you had the feeling all residents were neighbors. A downside was that you were often known by who your parents were. I was often introduced as Eldon's boy, or Virginia's boy. I was the third child of three, so I also was known as Steve's little brother, or John's little brother. It also was a town with a racist ...