Writing Process – Northern Skies Publishing

Mother, Mommy, Mom: mini linguistic peek

From the day I first started writing my Alaskan novel, I knew I wanted to make it historically accurate. It’s about a historic flight, set in 1920, so I needed to capture the period as best I could. You’ve heard a lot about that with posts on wood stoves, racism in Alaska, clothing, schools, andContinue reading “Mother, Mommy, Mom: mini linguistic peek”

43,601

The first draft is finished. But before I can even give a sigh of relief and enjoy the moment, my mind is already making a mental list of edits. Shush brain, let me be for a day! I was aiming for between 40,000 and 50,000 words for the rough draft, knowing I’ll be deleting andContinue reading “43,601”

Wrestling with History

I’ve had an on-going internal dialog on how to portray the women in my book, so I started writing it out. It’s a technique I tried to get my 1st and 2nd year students to use a few times because it’s a great way to figure out the problem. I encouraged them to write itContinue reading “Wrestling with History”

Character Ideas: Mary Wilson

In my previous post, “Be the Other,” I wrote about my dedication to getting the voice and actions of my half Inupiaq character, Mary, as real as possible. I should note that I have never taken a creative writing course that taught me about voice, so I’m learning as I go. So far I’ve foundContinue reading “Character Ideas: Mary Wilson”

Being the Other

1920 Alaska is fascinating. The country as a whole was on the cups of modernization. Edison started his electric company back in the 1880s, and by 1925 50% of the United States had residential electricity. The 1908 Model T were rapidly replacing carriages and carts. There are plenty of pictures taken in Nome that showContinue reading “Being the Other”

Writing Day Distractions

I have set writing times/days each week. It’s something I picked up from graduate school. If I make a habit of writing on a schedule, and do not accept excuses for skipping or scheduling over it, I make good progress on my book. I generally do my writing at a local Panera Bread or theContinue reading “Writing Day Distractions”