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NaNoWriMo in 17 days and following my own Writing Advice
If you go to my Fiction page, you can read my NaNoWriMo 2020 novel in seventeen posts. They’re longreads, so you might want to save them or even print them out. Some days, I wrote only one chapter, but there were a few days when I wrote two, or even three chapters. I had originally…
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Are there rules in Writing?
If you’ve never shared your writing with others before, especially those whom you don’t know, you may be wondering if there are rules about how to write. The short answer is: no. Millions of Readers haven’t sat together and agreed on exactly what makes writing good. No two people in the world are the same,…
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The Writing Process: the imrortance of getting into your characters’ heads
In March, I wrote a post called Write about what you know. Last week, I was thinking about Writers, and how they must transcend what they don’t know from experience in order to tell a tale. Oscar Wilde came to mind. He was a Writer who didn’t worry about what he knew or didn’t, but…
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The Writing Process: after you press the Approve button
“There’s nothing I can say, a total eclipse of the heart.” Bonnie Tyler, Total Eclipse of the Heart Being a published Author was like that for me. I didn’t really know what to say. Go me? I rock? Those were all things I could have said, but I didn’t have any words, and didn’t know…
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The Writing Process: Revising or Falling Apart
“Every now and then I fall apart.” Bonnie Tyler, Total Eclipse of the Heart Plotholes are as thick on the ground as leaves in the fall. Characters say and do things they wouldn’t. The whole thing’s FALLING APART! No, it’s behaving exactly like a first draft in the cold light of morning. Never fear. The…
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The Writing Process: Building a Relationship with Your Story
“Your love is like a shadow on me all of the time.” – Bonnie Tyler, Total Eclipse of the Heart The first part of writing a novel (or short story) is like falling in love. There’s passion. There’s fun. There’s discovery. No, you don’t have to be writing romance, but of course, that works, too!…
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The Writing Process – Overview and Ideas
Writing is a complex process. Many people start writing stories in school. Some keep on writing stories, even after the assignment has been handed in and graded. Some people write until the day they die. I don’t know what makes some of us write all our lives and others only when they must, but the…