Wendy Ledger's Blog

The Sharpest Claw is now available on Kindle for 99 cents for the next five days! Check it out.

Lately in this blog, I've been mentioning Jessica Brody's wonderful book, Save the Cat Writes A Novel and talking abstractly about the beats. I thought it might be a good idea to spell it out for people who are interested. So, according to this book, here are the beats of a novel:

Act 1

Beat 1: Opening Image

Beat 2: Theme Stated

Beat 3: Set-Up

Beat 4: Catalyst

Beat 5: Debate

Act 2

Beat 6: Break in 2

Beat 7: B Story

Beat 8: Fun and Games

Beat 9: Midpoint

Beat 10: Bad Guys Enter In

Beat 12: All Is Lost

Beat...

I am currently working on a first draft of The Deepest Growl, Book 3 of the Cats of the Afterlife series. Before I start a process, I always try to prepare myself as best as I can. I am not a pantser, someone who writes by the seat of their pants. I am an outliner who follows the precepts outlined in Save the Cat Writes a Novel. I would say I was a Student of the Beat.

Earlier this month, my husband and I stayed with friends at their cabin for an extended weekend. I had planned on doing writin...

Truth: I did not want to write today. I have a laundry load of work due for my day job, and my boss (me, I work for myself) can get quite anxious about things. This time, I could actually say that that anxiety might be a realistic evaluation of all that needs to get done. So I didn't want to spend any time on me and my writing because I just didn't have any time. We've all heard that before, right?

I also told myself that I couldn't think of anything I wanted to write about. And, for a moment,...

My latest book, The Sharpest Claw: A Talking Cat Fantasy, is now available on Amazon. It is the second book of the Cats of the Afterlife series. Here’s the blurb:

Kittens are evil.

At least that's what Jem, a calico cat, thought. And she had proof. In the afterlife, she had watched kittens take over what used to be her home on earth, claiming her people and her cat companion, her best friend ever.

It wasn't right. In fact it was dangerous. These kittens were two-faced, violent, manipulative, and...

Today's writing session was an exercise in frustration.

First, the overview, I'm working on the first draft of Book 3 of the Cats of the Afterlife series, The Deepest Growl. Book 2, The Sharpest Claw, will be out this month (September 2019). I have The Deepest Growl, planned out in accordance to Save the Cat Writes a Novel. I work in Scrivener, using the corkboard option. The first act came out easily. The second act has had been bumpy, with false starts, but this morning, it felt I had a hand...

It's been a hard week for our cats.

If you're not familiar with our cat family, let me introduce you: Scooter is our elder cat. He is a formerly feral cat. My husband has looked after Scooter since he was a tiny kitten. Scooter looks like a Norwegian forest cat with that luxuriant coat, beautiful big eyes, and white ruff. We also live with two young cats, a bonded pair, brother and sister, two years old, black and white. Indiana Jones looks like he's wearing a tuxedo, and Samantha Bee has a bl...

I thought I would write today on developmental editing. For me, developmental editing occurs after my beta readers have looked at my draft, and I have reviewed their feedback and revised until, once again, I can't “see” my draft any more. Then it's time for me to send it off to my developmental editor.

The job of the developmental editor is to make sure that your story and characters are solid. The developmental editor does not work on your grammar or use of language. That's the job of the cop...

I struggle with research. When I set out on this work, my inner voices invariably ask me the following questions: “But aren't you just procrastinating? I could understand it if you were writing nonfiction tomes, but you're writing talking cat fantasies! Shouldn't you be writing chapters or at least brainstorming an outline? How much of this material, if any, is going to make it into the book?”

I always try to answer these voices. If I don't, they just get louder. So these are my standard respo...

I’m sorry there wasn’t a post last week. We had a family visit, which was delightful. I chose to dive into that time instead of hang out in my writer’s head. Family is important to me. That fact shines out in every one of my books. When I have the opportunity to catch up with my tribe, I try to take it. But now they’ve gone home, and here I am again in my writer’s bed, the visit over, happy to be here.

Oftentimes when people think of writing a book, they imagine the moment when the writer triu...