Donna Andrews was the guest speaker at the Sisters in Crime - Central Virginia meeting yesterday. She is as funny in person as her characters are. She offered some really good insights for writing and revising.

This is what I learned from her presentation...

• If you're stuck or need help, try different techniques. If they don't work, stop and find another.
• She recommended using different colored index cards to track different parts of the plot (e.g. romance, mystery, etc.) Spread them out in chapter order. They help you visually see where there's too much of one area.
• You can outline without doing a formal plan. You can outline on a calendar. You can plot on a timeline.
• Critique groups are helpful.
• All characters (not just the guilty) have secrets.
• Create a spreadsheet or document to track your writing progress (and how much you need to accomplish). Make sure to build in days off and holidays. She uses a word quota and not a time one.
• When you're done, make a chapter list of everything that happens. This helps you spot areas that need improvement.
• Create a list of overused words. Use search/replace to find overused, common, and empty words. Tighten up your writing.
• Read your manuscript aloud.
• She uses one font for writing. When she's done, she changes the font, and rereads. The font change is enough to make it look fresh for another read-through.
• There is such thing as Extreme Croquet. This sounds like my kind of game!