Ever been just thoroughly stuck in your novel? NaNoWriMo is a notorious time for everything you've been planning to just disappear. It's like all of your prep work was a beautiful dream and about half way through November you get woken up by your loud alarm clock and forget everything. I touched on what you … Continue reading Using Your Resources
If you've been following my blog for a bit, you'll have noticed I've mentioned Word Wars a fair few times. I find them to be a fantastic way to bolster the average amount of words written and it's a great way to break out of writer's block. But What is a Word War? A Word … Continue reading I Declare a Word War
I will say that any advice I give you is not one size fits all. I haven't published a novel myself, but I do copywriting every day. I went to school for broadcast journalism so I know how to make sentences easy to read and understand. I know what I do and don't like when … Continue reading Preptober #4: 10 Tips Before You Dive In
The third week of October is upon us and I have another preptober prompt and discussion. This week we'll be talking about dialogue. I've only read one or two novels were dialogue wasn't important, so I'll say that focusing on how your characters talk is not only important but crucial to making your story flow. … Continue reading Preptober #3: “Write” Way to Talk (Perfecting Dialogue)
Last week, I gave you a lazy outline, and in that I talked about listing out and creating your characters first before diving in to write. Now, let me talk about the character creation. When I get to writing down my characters, I've already spent a long time mentally creating them. I've spent a long … Continue reading Preptober #2: Character Creation Isn’t Scary Just Time Consuming
I am a dreadful outliner. I barely plan my blog posts (I've gotten better, but sometimes my topics are spur of the moment). But I am trying to get better at my writing, at my blogging, and consequently, better at my outlining. So let's work together to create a lazy writer's outline. Or more of … Continue reading Preptober #1: A Lazy Writer’s Guide to an Outline
The NaNoWriMo season is upon us. Next month will be Preptober and then in November, writers from around the world will attempt to put pen to paper (or fingers to keys) and write 50k words in just 30 days. Crazy right? National Novel Writing Month has been around for years. In fact, the very first … Continue reading NaNoWriMo: Pantser vs Plotter
Today's post is going to be a little short. It addresses something that's never short and something I see beginning writers do all the time. I fell into this trap too when I was first starting out. Writing long arduous sentences because that's what important writers do. Writing is hard and when your shown classical … Continue reading Ebb and Flow of Sentences: Making a Scene Move
You might have notices that I like to use fragments on this blog. Like a lot. Like right now. But in traditional writing when is it okay to use fragments? Most of what I'm about to tell you is opinion. Ultimately, there is no real right way to write. But some might say there are … Continue reading When Can We Use Fragments
Every single time I run across a beginner's guide to writing, the author of the post tells people to not use said. They go off on a tangent with a hundred other words you can use instead before continuing on with a thousand other rules. Vintage letterpress wood printing blocks placed randomly on a grunge … Continue reading In Defense of the Word Said
