Writing Tips and Exercises
Ever since I finished my rough draft, I’ve been working on organizing my thoughts and figuring out exactly what I want this book to say. Unfortunately, my writing software–an ancient version of Microsoft Word–isn’t cooperating very well. There’s a lot going on in my story, at least to me. I have a huge world, and […]
I wrote about worldbuilding back in November, and today I’d like to get a little more specific. Let’s talk about an aspect of worldbuilding that’s easy to overlook: micro worlds. It’s entirely possible that there’s a better name for this. Micro worlds just works for me. What are micro worlds? Your macro world is the […]
I seem to be on a roll with old writing rules lately. Trust your reader goes along with classics like “show, don’t tell,” “write what you know,” and “kill your darlings.” Most of these old school rules come from a good place, but they’re often misinterpreted or poorly explained. Today’s post was inspired by a […]
Let’s look at another classic writing rule, shall we? Kill your darlings isn’t as complicated as some of them, like show, don’t tell, but I still think it’s worth going over. It’s good advice when it’s applied correctly. I’m giving you an overview today, but I do plan on going back over some of these […]
Today’s post is about a piece of writing advice that’s right up there with “Show, don’t tell,” as far as things people tell novice writers but don’t really explain. What conclusions would you draw if someone just told you to write what you know, but didn’t explain what it meant? I think most people assume […]
When I first started writing this post, I kept trying to come up with examples of why it’s important to maintain your reader’s suspended disbelief. I wrote a bunch of drafts and deleted them all because they were either too complicated or too boring. And then I remembered this: See the Starbucks cup? That’s what […]
I honestly went back and forth on this one a bit. Like…I don’t know about you, but I haven’t gotten to travel much this year. I doubt I’ll do any next year either. It’s just the state of the world right now. I love, love travel stories and documentaries, though. I grew up on Rick […]
I feel like memoir is often a gateway into writing for older people. They’ve lived a long time and seen a lot, and they want to share their stories with the next generation. Memoir is a better vehicle than an autobiography, at least to me, because a good memoir has a similar structure to a […]
Earlier this month, I wrote a sort of general post about research for fiction writers. Today, I want to follow up and get a little more specific. Let’s talk about how to research certain aspects of character development, specifically things like disabilities, mental illness, and other traits that your characters might possess, but you do […]
I mainly write in the fantasy/sci-fi/speculative range, so worldbuilding is a massive part of my writing. Now that my rough draft is finished, I’m researching and brainstorming ways to refine my setting and really make it seem alive. I thought I’d share a few of those tips with you all today. First of all, what […]
