16 Comments
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Kristen Holt-Browning's avatar

LOL "you have more than three epigraphs"! (also I live in Beacon so I enjoyed the nod to DIA!)

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Laura Leffler's avatar

Lucky you!

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Emma Vail's avatar

Procrastisearching- LOVE the term! It is like when people who write historical (like me) spend more time "researching" than writing. Easy to convince yourself you must know exactly what this bit of clothing is called, or how long it takes to get from point A to point B in a carriage, and where they would stop... but you don't actually need to know those things before you start. It is so much easier to think about writing than actually do the writing. Before you start a book the book is perfect, but once you start the book it gets messy.

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Laura Leffler's avatar

EXACTLY.

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Julie Wise's avatar

Love it! And your straight-up honesty. 😁

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Laura Leffler's avatar

❤️❤️☺️

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Nancy Reddy's avatar

this is so real! and writing researched nonfiction, it's so hard to draw the line--like, when are you doing your job, and when are you just "researching" as a way of avoiding writing?

excited to read about a ski town! I grew up skiing at a very tiny slope in central PA, where my dad was a patroller, and now he's a ski instructor (in his retirement) in Vermont, and I've been thinking about what a fascinating social world ski towns are!

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Laura Leffler's avatar

Amazing!! I think small ski towns have such strange energy (in a good way)

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Jennifer Pollock's avatar

I needed this newsletter. Great term. I am 100 percent in this boat right now. Except I’m just in the waiting game of querying. The book I’m querying was a total panster project and so I’m obsessing over plotting my next one out. Save the cat save the cat!! I think I just need to start writing? Scary!!

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Laura Leffler's avatar

Just start writing! It’s the only way to get the story to come alive imo❤️

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Jan M. Flynn's avatar

But procrastisearching (LOVE! STEALING!) is so much fuuuuuuuuuunnnnn . . .

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Laura Leffler's avatar

Steal away! ❤️❤️

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Lee Ann Walling's avatar

Oh my. Thanks for channeling me. I have Google Earth on a split screen so I can walk the streets of whatever place my characters are in.

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Laura Leffler's avatar

I love this ❤️😂

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Pramika Kadari's avatar

LOL I've definitely had times in the past where I could relate to this a lot! Luckily one of my writer-friends is good at keeping me accountable/stopping me for spending my whole life "outlining" hahaha

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Heather Waugh's avatar

I'm currently here I think. I've plotted the first three (I think) chapters, written a climax argument and the first chapter, and have researched my butt off about Stillwater, OK and what renovation laws Oklahoma has about homes on the national historic registry.

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