Two young girls stood at the edge of an open field. One’s name was Margo, and the other was Annette. Margo was well-known to be the braver of the pair, but it was Annette who urged Margo on with an overeager prod. “Go on, Margo! Imagine how excited people will be when we tell them … More The Dragon’s Less Elegant Cousin
I’m maybe over halfway done with my plotting at this point, and it’s honestly such a good thing that I’m getting a feel for my characters in the process. I don’t think I’d otherwise have had much time to sit down and get to know them all personally before November strikes. We’re already halfway through … More NaNoWriMo 2019: Characters
It’s that time of year again! October is officially here, which means if you intend on doing NaNoWriMo, it’s time to settle down on a story idea an do some brainstorming to get prepared. I’ll be doing a special series of posts this month to help prep. But first, why do NaNoWriMo at all? If, … More A Case For NaNoWriMo
Look, we all know that everyone has their own way of writing their stories. I can’t speak for everyone. But I know that one day I decided I was going to become a full time author. Before then, inspiration came and went like a summer breeze, always welcome, always sought after, but nearly impossible to … More Picking Up A Hobby
As I’ve been working on the (hopefully) final revision of my work in progress, I’ve tried to figure out which components made it easier to write each scene. So whether you’re a bit new to this writing business and you’re still looking for some tips, or you’re just looking for ideas to make this whole … More So You’re Ready to Write a Scene
I write this blog post on Friday, April 26, 2019. I usually write my blog posts a month beforehand, so if I don’t finish it quite on time, I don’t have to risk falling behind or publishing my posts late. It doesn’t usually matter, but I think this time it does. With any luck, five … More The Last Pages of my College Chapter
This post is again about Tomi Adeyemi’s Children of Blood & Bone. Unlike last month’s post, there’s going to be quite a few spoilers. Proceed with caution. Have you ever read a book where two characters become friends or fall in love or whatever, and then things go wrong, and they’re surprised to find the … More May Reading Reflections
Stage 1: Catch the spark. This is the most thrilling part that any to-be-author is going to see for quite some time. Where the ideas come from is a bit of a mystery. It begins, I suppose, with an impression or an image that sparks the novelist’s mind in the form of a creative what … More The Process of Writing a Novel: An Unpublished Author’s Edition
Here’s the thing about novel writing. It’s a massive underaking. If you don’t know that, you must be new. It can be easy to get overwhelmed, or to lose faith. The reason, I think, that most people give up in the end is that they don’t know what it is about novel writing that they … More Four Trends I’ve Noticed in Certain Authors’ Novels
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
