Music is a huge part of my writing process. As the daughter of two professional musicians, I grew up in a household where music was everywhere, and to this day someone is almost always tuning, practicing, or making some other kind of musical noise in our house. I learned early on what a powerful tool… Continue reading 5 Awesome Ambient Music Recommendations For Writers
So, there’s a dumpster fire happening, and as a very long-time participant in Nanowrimo and someone who has promoted the forums in past years, I don’t feel right not speaking up about this. I’m about to talk about some heavy topics – namely child abuse, grooming, and the safety of minors online – so if… Continue reading My take on the Nanowrimo situation
I realized recently that most of the advice on this blog is geared towards people who’ve been writing for a while. I didn’t start to seek out advice like this until I had been immersed in this hobby for many years, so in my mind that tracks. But today I want to do something a… Continue reading How to start writing for the very first time
I’ve wanted to do a post for a while about my outlining method, but I keep running into a problem. Outlining is a squishy process for me, and it changes basically every time I write a book. Every set of ideas I’ve ever come up with needs something different in the planning process in order… Continue reading How to outline a novel, however you want
Happy Preptober! It’s officially Nanowrimo Prep season, and I’ve got some fun stuff planned this month as we approach what I fondly think of as the writerly holiday season. This year is going to be a fun milestone for me: I’ll be writing the first draft of the final book in a series I’ve been… Continue reading How to write a sequel (without getting overwhelmed)
Hey there! If you’re not following me on Instagram, you should go do that, because I just posted a teaser of one of my current projects, Nothing Is Here! But if social media isn’t your cup of tea, here’s what you need to know! Nothing Is Here is an adult sci-fi horror novel that follows Asa… Continue reading Meet the WIP! (Okay, one of them) | NOTHING IS HERE
Do you ever write a draft and then look back at it and realize that you did not in fact write a draft – you wrote two thirds of a draft? Are your manuscripts bloated with comments and notes to self that say things like “you forgot to foreshadow this” or “insert that one scene… Continue reading Underwriting vs. Overwriting: How to make it through a novel when your brain only wants to write half
It’s July, which means it’s time for Camp Nanowrimo! This month I’m attempting to add at least 30,000 words to the second draft of Nothing Is Here, which started its life as my 2022 Nanowrimo novel. The poor thing has been limping through the sad space in between drafts for many months now, and it’s… Continue reading How to prepare for revising a novel
I’ve been thinking a lot about symbolism lately, mainly because I’ve read, watched, or played a couple of things recently that did it really well. It’s gotten me thinking about how good symbolism ends up in fiction. How much of it is intentional, and how much of it is just me reading way too far… Continue reading How to write good symbolism
Many moons ago, I did a post on ways to make your sci-fi technology more realistic. My day job is in aerospace engineering and am I also a serial nitpicker with more pet peeves than you can shake a stick at, so if you thought that post was the end of my ranting – well,… Continue reading 4 more tips for writing realistic sci-fi technology
