I’m very passionate about mythology. Beyond the fascinating cleverness that goes into each myth at its conception, mythology as its own brand of story-telling has always been an awe-inspiring way to bring magic into the mundane. So, whether your novel’s world has real magic in it or not, and whether your character has access to … More World-Building: 5 Things an Author Should Know About Myths
The poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe once said, “There is nothing insignificant in the world. It all depends on the point of view.” This holds true even for novel writing… perhaps especially for novel writing. It’s not just the character who tells the story, but also in what way the character tells the story that can … More Shifting the Meaning
Character voice is a subtle art. Certainly, it a bit of a chaotic one. You have to know enough about them to know what they might say in a particular situation, and if you think that’s not terribly hard, then bring to mind a person you know very well. A sister, a parent, a best … More Giving Characters their Voice
For as long as I’ve been writing, people have been telling me what reading strategies they think I should follow to make me a better writer. Well, it’s always fun when someone with little to no writing experience tries to tell you how to become a better writer, but the question they raised is still … More The Problem With Libraries
Or: A Beginner’s Guide to my Builder’s Theory Number 1: Pantsing vs. Plotting is not a useful way to determine how to write your book. Think of it this way: a book cannot be written in a single draft. As you write and go through several different drafts, your novel will go through various changes, … More 7 Things Aspiring Authors Should Know about Plotting
When I first started revising Dire Fate, I began with a printed manuscript that I read and marked up diligently… until I got about halfway through and realized it wasn’t editing that the manuscript needed but one final revision. Granted, I still pulled from my original draft. In some places, I copied and pasted a … More A Mess of an Editing Process
People in general tend to find themselves more productive during a certain time. Some are vampires and work throughout the night. Some are normal people and work throughout the day. I am a writer, and have left any claims to “normal” far behind me. Are you an early bird or night owl when it comes … More Birds and Owls and Me
There are certain things that only work if other certain things are correctly placed. For me, the newsletter happens to be one of them. Whether it’s because of technical issues or a general lack of interest, it doesn’t seem to be a thing gathering enough attention to warrant the effort. For right now, I’ve decided … More My Kind of Story
I have an announcement. For the past few weeks, I’ve been thinking about how I might make both my author site and TMC more manageable, since it’s a bit of a hassle to keep up two blogs (it’s also one of those things where, if I mention my blog to someone, they say “Oh, you … More Massive Shifts to Come
My vehemence may shock you, but I promise, I say it with good reason. Fate began with no plotting or character-building, and only minimal word-building that mostly came from the story that would eventually be called its sequel. I heavily identified with the pantser terminology because I felt that a story should flow (I mean, … More Destroy the Concept of Pantsers
