Over the last few years, I’ve managed to cultivate a few writing practices which help me build my stories. While on an extended weekend vacation, I went back to an old gem and rediscovered its virtues: history.
And no, I don’t mean actually studying real history to tell my own stories, although I also enjoy that. I’m talking about writing history. Continue reading “Using History as a Story’s Backbone”
Last night, Jessie and I had our first writing session since… she moved to Denver.
You see, we used to meet periodically with our laptops and notebooks at a little cafe in Columbia, MD to take notes, talk shop, and brainstorm about whatever writing projects we were working on at the time.
Now that Jessie lives in Baltimore and I live just outside the city, we agreed to find a new writer’s cafe. Continue reading “Exploring Writing and Cafes in Fells Point”
On Friday I touched on how I started outlining The Warden of Everfeld: Legacy to help me lay out the general narrative.
I’m pretty sure this style of outline is sort of an amalgam of various outlining techniques I’ve read about, so I’d like to share it with you all. Continue reading “How to Outline through Character Arcs”
Manuscript: Charlie is done. At least, it’s as done as it can be right now.
205,000 words, which is actually shorter than I thought it would turn out. Continue reading “On to the Business of Publishing”
That’s right, I said it. My semi-pantser model of writing the early drafts of WoEM has become a bit of an annoyance. I think I have been converted to a planner.
Now that I’m well into of my revisions — in the final third of my story — my somewhat free-wheeling outline style has come back to bite me.
Luckily, I found a somewhat easy way to fix it… and avoid it in the future. Continue reading “How Pantsing Makes Revising Harder than It Needs to Be”
My how things can change in a few days. Monday was a strange day. Due to circumstances at work, I ended up over-thinking a lot of things, some work-related, some book-related, and getting a little stressed.
Despite my wave of confidence last Friday, I’m pretty nervous about the entire publishing process.
I feel good about my book and my abilities to make it enjoyable for people aside from my friends, but publishing the thing is an entirely different story. Continue reading “The 9-Step Publication Plan”
Last Friday, I touched on the changes that were beginning to manifest in the third draft of The Warden of Everfeld: Memento.
As one of two leading protagonists in the novel, I knew that Jaed’s characterization was paramount to both a well-balanced story, and an enjoyable read. Achieving that has been easier said than done.
Continue reading “Creativity Sessions: Finding a Character’s Heart”
Man, I thought world-building was tough. As much as I love going into the details of a place and its people in my stories, even I must admit that it can be a lot of work.
But I had no idea just how difficult it could be to world-build for a second time. Continue reading “The Trouble with World-Building… Twice”
Hear that stuttered beat? It’s intriguing, hopeful.
You don’t quite know where the song is going until after the 8-measure intro, and the full beat kicks in (after another mini intro).
That’s what writing is like sometimes. It’s difficult to sit down and just start typing or scribbling away all the time. That’s what NaNo has been like for me so far this month. Continue reading “How to Get into the Rhythm of Writing”
Holy crap it’s almost November! I’ve been looking forward to National Novel Writing Month basically all year, and it somehow still snuck up on me.
So I guess it’s time to announce my project for NaNo 2017. Continue reading “Friday Write-Day: Holy Crap NaNoWriMo is Coming!”
Evening Satellite Publishing 