Unsolicited advice from your local opinionated writer.
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
Happy new year! And happy New Year’s resolution season to those who celebrate. I, for one, do not. But this time of year, many in the writing world are taking this opportunity to set goals related to their craft, whether it’s to get published this year, read 50 books, get through the revision process, or… Continue reading Goal setting for people who hate goals
Research is one of my favorite parts of the writing process, but I’ll be the first to admit I tend to overdo it. Back in the pre-Google days, my mom was a reference librarian, so this is practically written into my DNA. I grew up in a house stacked with reference books, with an on-call… Continue reading Do you really need to Google that? A beginner’s guide to novel research
Scrivener is a piece of fabulous writing software, which I have been using since 2011. It’s technically a word processor, but that phrasing doesn’t really cover the breadth of what Scrivener actually does. It’s a one-stop shop for organizing all the research, notes, documentation, images, and little scraps of information that go along with writing… Continue reading 5 features in Scrivener that will make your writerly life easier
It’s the last Warmup Wednesday of Nanowrimo 2022! As we crawl to the finish line, there isn’t a whole lot left to warm up for, and you probably have the methods that get you into the groove of your first draft pretty much down by now. So I want to use today to focus on… Continue reading Warmup Wednesday: Get ready for the Now What? Months!
Novels end. It’s a sad fact of life. And an even sadder fact is that writing the ending of a novel can often be the hardest part. You’ve built such a big world over the course of the last 50,000 words – it’s time to show your readers the door, but how can you possibly… Continue reading Story Structure Sunday: How to end a novel
Welcome back to Stupid Advice Saturday! In this final week of Nanowrimo, we’re going to eviscerate a piece of purported wisdom you’ve had crammed down your throat a lot lately, and that is to write every day. Bold words from someone who has spent the last 25 days encouraging you to write 1,667 words per… Continue reading Stupid Advice Saturday: Should you really write every day?
Oh, Wikipedia. My best friend, my darling… my downfall. How many writing sessions have I supposedly “started” by saying I need to google “just one thing” first, and twelve Wikipedia articles later, I’m still telling myself this is fruitful, writerly productivity happening even though not a single word has appeared on the page? But sadly,… Continue reading Warmup Wednesday: the Wikipedia method of worldbuilding
