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
I started writing novels when I was 14, and let me tell you, I did not want to be published. I was terrified of the idea of other people reading my books – a fear that only grew stronger as time went on, anxiety began to make a cozy home for itself inside my soul,… Continue reading 2022 Round-up!
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
I think everyone remembers the first book they ever read in their favorite genre. Writers especially. The story that got you into writing whatever it is you write will always be special. Those early influences, the stories that made you the writer you are – they stick with you. And for me, one of those… Continue reading Book Review: What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher
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
“I can’t apologize to you. I came to tell you the truth. That’s all.” -Sonya Kantor, Poster Girl Poster Girl is the best book I’ve read in a long, long time. I knew I’d enjoy it – I was a child of the dystopian YA lit boom in the late 2000s, and a massive fan… Continue reading Book Review: Poster Girl by Veronica Roth
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!
