Unsolicited advice from your local opinionated writer.
Once upon a time, I got bit by a story bug and spent the entire weekend doing barrels and barrels of research for a manuscript that may or may not ever actually end up being written, ignoring friends, relations, and my cat as they expressed concern for my sanity and time management skills. And by… Continue reading So, you want to retell a fairy tale
HAPPY STRANGER THINGS DAY!!! In honor of the long-awaited arrival of season 4 of one of my favorite shows of all time, I wanted to write about the genre this work of art calls home: Lovecraftian horror. What is it, where did it come from, and how do you write it? Fair warning, this post… Continue reading How to ace Lovecraftian horror and creep everyone out
You’ve spent hours. You’ve been slaving away. You’ve taken seventeen different personality tests, generated a full horoscope analysis that was so long it took ten minutes to download, and filled out every character sheet Pinterest has to offer. You can recite every detail about your character’s life, from their first word to their last. And… Continue reading How to communicate that tragic backstory you worked so stinkin’ hard on
Nothing scares people like first chapters, and there’s a good reason for that. From a marketing perspective, it’s the highest-stakes part of your book. If you’re going the traditional publishing route, this is the first – and in many cases, only – glimpse of your work that agents and publishers are going to see. It’s… Continue reading The ultimate first chapter checklist
People always ask you what your favorite quote is – nobody ever asks you what your least favorite quote is. And they should! It’s a way more interesting question. Well, since nobody asked, mine is Game of Thrones writer David Benioff’s “Themes are for eighth grade book reports.” The show was not even on my… Continue reading How to give your book a theme that really sticks
Let me say one thing very loudly and very clearly right now: sci-fi does not have to be scientifically accurate to be good. This is one of the profound truths upon which my view of the universe is built. All fiction relies on suspension of disbelief to a certain degree, and there are no rules… Continue reading An engineer’s guide to writing realistic sci-fi
I have a problem, and my problem is reference books. I would say I collect them, but that’s not quite true – I hoard them. Thanks to my mother, a former reference librarian, I grew up in a house packed with obscure reference books, and clearly I have inherited the obsession. I am one of… Continue reading Books every writer should have on their shelf
The first college class I ever sat down in was English 101. I’d already been writing as a hobby for years, so I don’t think my hormonal, egocentric teenage brain expected to learn much. But one of the first things the professor had us do turned out to be the single most useful writing exercise… Continue reading Freewriting: the best writing exercise I know
There’s something really cool about writing horror that makes it incredibly fun to play with, and that is its ability to be layered on top of almost any other genre and still be effective. Think about it – how many genres can you really say this about? Romance and mystery come to mind, but they… Continue reading How to write a little horror into any genre
Happy April, everyone! The sun is shining, the flowers are blooming, allergy season is beginning to reassert its dominance over us all, and the first sesssion of Camp Nanowrimo 2022 is here. As a devoted participant in any Nanowrimo event I’ve been able to get my hands on since the year 2011, I’m proud to… Continue reading How to survive Camp Nanowrimo and have fun doing it
